Alpinist Magazine: New Editor-in-Chief Brings New Change? Some thoughts..

Alpinist Magazine is slated to relaunch in April. Speculation on what the classic climbing magazine will be doing differently the second time out has been circulating since it was purchased by Height of Land Publications in January. The company that took the risk to rescue Alpinist from the bankruptcy bin–and made a very reasonable purchase at auction of all of Alpinist’s assets–had previously stated that the magazine would be very close to it’s first incarnation.

A statement has been released on the Alpinist website that may suggest otherwise:

“Height of Land Publications, the independent publisher of Alpinist, Backcountry and Telemark Skier Magazines, announced today the well-known climber and editor Michael Kennedy will join Senior Editor Katie Ives to relaunch Alpinist Magazine. Issue 26 ships to subscribers, shops and newsstands April 15

Founded by Christian Beckwith and Marc Ewing and operated in Jackson, Wyoming, until the autumn of last year, the quarterly Alpinist features a timeless, clean design with minimal ads. Publishing only the highest quality and most authentic climbing art and writing, Alpinist portrays the essence of the climbing life, inspired by an ethos of beauty, purity and style, and a dedication to help preserve the natural world that makes all adventures possible. “

New Alpinist Editor-And-Chief Michael Kennedy’s previous experience in the climbing publications realm includes more than two decades as editor and publisher of Climbing magazine. He sold that publication in 1997. During his tenure at Climbing magazine, Michael overseen the transformation of that publication into a world leader of climbing news and information, making it the largest circulated climbing publication in the United States and possibly the world. Not bad.

People involved in climbing and adventure publications are already starting to speculate what Michael will bring to the table and what changes might be made to the classic Alpinist publication. Dougald MacDonald, on his The Mountain World blog, is speculating that Alpinist magazine will take the shape of the old Climbing magazine, as well as feature something that had become synonymous with Alpinist. The magazine relaunch may include ads for the first time.

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Alpinist Magazine: The Return

Alpinist Magazine was abruptly shut down a couple of months ago due to financial issues.  The magazine has been looked upon as a high-class climbing icon over the couse of the last few years.  It seems many people were reading it, but not a lot were buying.  You can attribute this to libraries, friends passing it around, etc.  The magazine carried a premium cost, but for that price you got a magazine that had very little in the way of advertising.  They were supported solely on subscriptions and financial backing.

With the advent of Alpinist Magazine closing, it soon became apparent that things weren’t going to get better.  The assets were soon put up for auction.  Luckily, a publisher has stepped in and bought all the rights to the Alpinist name, magazine, website, and film festival, and is promising to try to keep things as normal as possible.  Does this mean that it will still be published without the advertising and still represent the finest in outdoor photography and articles?  Onl;y time will tell, but at least Alpinist will be around for awhile longer.

Dougald MacDonald recently published the Press Release concerning the future of Alpinist magazine.

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Alpinist Magazine Finds A Buyer

Alpinist magazine has been purchased for $71,000 after a recent auctioning of the assets.  The lucky new owners happen to be Height of Land Publications, a company that owns and operates Backcountry magazine, another niche favorite of my own.  Most of us felt that this publication would find a second life in short time, and luckily it came faster than what I expected.  When I originally heard that no offers had been put in for the original $40,000 price tag, it made me whimper a little bit and open up my checkbook.  Unfortunately, it was out of my reach.

The sale includes all assets, names, and entities associated with Alpinist magazine.  This includes the film festival, print magazine, and online presense of one of the world’s most famous alpine climbing publications.  It will be interesting to see what Height of Land Publications has in store for Alpinist.  It is being rumored that the magazine may carry on, with some slight changes to formatting, that would help it stay viable for the new owners.  Many of us can guess that this will probably include some advertising in the pages of the once advertisement free publication.  Let’s not jump on them just yet.  I am excited to know that Alpinist has found a new home and am willing to see what the future has in store before making a judgement.

Breaking: Alpinist Magazine Closes It’s Doors

Jackson, Wyoming — October 16, 2008 — Alpinist LLC, which publishes the climbing magazine Alpinist, runs the website www.alpinist.com and produces The Alpinist Film Festival, announced today that the October 2008 financial crisis has forced them to suspend operations.

Founded in 2002 by Marc Ewing and Christian Beckwith, Alpinist began in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as an archival-quality publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The quarterly quickly gained a reputation for both superior writing and beautiful photography; by 2004, Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner called it, “The best climbing magazine in the world today.” Alpinist went on to win numerous awards; in March 2005 it was featured in a seven-page article in Outside Magazine (”The Purists”) that explored its impact on American climbing.

Alpinist’s website, www.alpinist.com, attracted more than 50,000 unique visitors per month. Breaking news, weekly features, video, and desktop wallpaper images were complemented by reader’s blogs and gear reviews, creating a site that thousands of climbers turned to daily for both information and entertainment.

In 2004, Beckwith founded The Barry Corbet Film Festival in honor of cinematographer and adventure legend Barry Corbet. In 2005, the event was folded into Alpinist LLC as The Alpinist Film Festival (AFF). By 2008, the AFF, held each winter in Jackson, had grown to a four-day annual event that attracted more than 3,000 people each year. In 2008, the AFF began touring; events in Bend, OR; Bozeman, MT; and Boulder, CO, exported signature elements of the master festival, such as cocktail hours and live DJs, to create a fun gathering for adventure communities across the West.

“We’re extremely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the six and a half years since we started,” said Publisher Ewing from his home in Chicago. “There hasn’t been a publication like Alpinist since Ascent”—the iconic climbing publication that emerged from the 1960s to inspire a generation of climbers—”and our readers have been our lifeblood. We owe them everything.”

“It’s incredibly sad to close after working so hard for so many years,” said Editor-in-Chief Christian Beckwith. “That being said, I’m deeply proud of our team for putting out twenty-five great issues, the film festival has been a blast, and I’m honored to have shared all this work and creation with our community. I’ll always look back on Alpinist with joy.”

Exploration of the options for the various Alpinist businesses are underway. Details will be made available on www.alpinist.com when they are finalized.

Special Editor’s Note:  This is sad news coming from one of the world’s most well-known and highly respected climbing publications.  Alpinist, Alpinist.com, The Alpinist Film Festival, and other ventures have ceased operations indefinitely.  This goes to show that today’s market has become quite different over the past few months.  The state of the world’s financial markets is hitting all of us.

I wish the guys (and gals) at Alpinist, Alpinist.com, and Alpinist LLC. the best of luck and a big thank-you for all of their years of hard workand dedication.  They definitely put out a first class publication and sparked many, many discussions over the years with their fine line reporting.  I know I am not alone when I say they will be missed around the climbing and adventure communities, and I hope that they can get something worked out for the future.  This may not be the end of Alpinist, they have not ruled out getting something else worked out or teaming up with another company.  Let’s hope that their future comes back around.  I will update all of you when I hear more on this suddenly breaking news.

Jason A. Hendricks

Editor

The Adventurist