Different magazines are closing up for a cause. Trails Journal is out to resolve that.
Magazines like Backpacker have been part of my id since school. I began writing for that one particularly throughout my junior yr. Then, I constructed a contract writing profession with it on the core.
It’s all the time been the instance I’ve thrown out when requested what I do for work. So when Outdoors, Inc. (mother or father firm for Outdoors, Backpacker, and others) introduced this spring that they’d lay off quite a lot of employees and shift to an online-only presence, I used to be gutted.
However right here’s my soiled little secret: Even I haven’t subscribed to Backpacker Journal in years.
Clearly, the world of print journey journalism is altering, however virtually each journal that’s gone down — together with Backpacker — has adopted an identical mannequin. Making magazines low-cost, filling them with ads, and charging pennies on the greenback isn’t an excellent path to producing the high-quality content material that earns you subscribers, even when they’re common contributors.
The entire episode bought me eager about what a backpacking-centric journal that I would subscribe to would appear like. And as everyone knows, the one technique to actually get what you need is to do it your self.
At present, I launched Trails Journal on Kickstarter. It’s my try to fill the void left by Backpacker in a method that may survive in 2022. Trails Magazine is a quarterly, print-only journal for backpackers, canoe-campers, bikepackers, and anybody who sleeps within the grime.
What Makes Trails Magazine Totally different
In fact, it hasn’t been solely doom and gloom within the journal world recently. Publications like Journey Journal and the revamped Mountain Gazette have confirmed {that a} totally different type of print journal can thrive.
The hope with Trails is to create one thing in that very same vein: aesthetic and design-forward, quality-over-quantity, constructed with high-quality paper, filled with nice images and provoking tales — and with a complete lot fewer ads. You gained’t have the ability to get a yr’s subscription for pennies, however it would be best to learn these magazines cowl to cowl and hold them in your espresso desk for later, quite than simply tossing them when the subsequent one arrives.
However my objective with Trails is to not create one thing that solely appeals to “armchair” backpackers. The most important factor Backpacker did properly was present a service to its readers who really bought on the market. That’s one thing Trails will emulate.
It’ll allow you to add to your bucket checklist and provide the beta it’s worthwhile to get there. It’ll present opinions of substances you’ve by no means seen earlier than. And the magazine will share data that’s going to assist make your subsequent backpacking journey extra profitable and enjoyable, all alongside true, thrilling journey tales.
The very first thing I observed after the announcement of Backpacker’s demise was the variety of folks nostalgic for magazines like that and who nonetheless needed one thing tangible to learn and expertise. It made it straightforward to assume one thing like Trails is perhaps attainable, and that print remains to be very a lot alive.
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How We’re Constructing Trails
This isn’t one thing I made a decision to tackle yesterday.
I’ve already focused-grouped and surveyed potential readers, mapped out the whole lot that goes into publishing, and labored extensively with a community of expert writers and photographers, a few of whom are already onerous at work reporting and placing collectively the tales that may debut in Challenge 1.
As somebody who has been fairly solely targeted on the editorial facet of magazines for my entire profession, it’s been an enormous studying expertise determining the logistics and manufacturing particulars.
However clearly, to make something occur, you want funding. The tough half, at this stage, is that readers solely need to subscribe to {a magazine} that exists. And, advertisers solely need to companion with {a magazine} that may really print.
A Kickstarter was the apparent route to find out if a mission like this could succeed: Both we discover the subscribers we have to recover from the hump, or we don’t.
After the marketing campaign, assuming it’s profitable, it’s time to ramp up manufacturing. That features finalizing tales, modifying, designing the journal, and ultimately sending it to the printer. Trails Magazine expects supply of Challenge 1 to hit mailboxes in February 2023.
— Ryan Wichelns, Trails Magazine founder
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