Alpinist Magazine Shuts Down
By Rocky Thompson on October 21st, 2008
One of the most inspiring climbing magazines and my first stop on browsing tours at the bookstore has suspended its operations as of last week. I’m not even remotely an alpine climber and, frankly, I’d rather go ice fishing than ice climbing. That said, flipping through the pages of Alpinist magazine was as close as you could get to sticking your head into the clouds while standing in the checkout line at a gear shop. Good luck, guys.
I noticed you said browsing…
The content and the magazine itself was BEAUTIFUL. The photography was stunning.
But a subscription cost an arm and a leg and single issues as much as 3 or 4 magazines combined.
The problem with Alpinist was the price.
Their desire to limit the number of ads and instead charge much more for their magazine is what did them in.
@Carl I agree that single issues cost a lot, but the production and content were well worth it. I am more than willing to pay a higher subscription price to not have ads. I CANNOT read Climbing for that reason. I do not want to pay $5.99 for half a magazine of ads. I will, however, pay $13 for an ad free magazine that I WANT to look at over and over and over. I’ve reread every single issue I own numerous times. so @carl, the price of Alpinist was not the problem. The problem is the attachment people feel to their dollars. To me, spending more for enriching content will always be worth the added cost. It’s like passing up an organic salad because it’s $5 but then getting a fast food burger for $3; people are fooled by a ‘good deal’. ATTITUDE FAIL.
[...] In case you’ve been living under a rock, Alpinist magazine abruptly shutdown a couple of weeks back. You can read more about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here. Who knew this many people were even reading Alpinist!? [...]
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