A360 Media Shutters Powder, Bike, Surfer and Snowboarder Titles

In another blow to the world of outdoor niche publishing, on Oct. 3 A360 Media, owner of Men’s Journal and other mainstream magazines and digital properties, shut down the print and digital products for Bike, Powder, and Surfer magazines, and the print version of Snowboarder magazine.

According to www.adventurejournal.com, staffs of Bike and Surfer were told Oct. 2 that they were being furloughed immediately, with staffs of Powder and Snowboarder notified that they will stay employed until November. The report added that website updates have stopped for Bike and Surfer and will stop for Powder and Snowboarder in November, with Snowboarder keeping one editor on board to run the website, social media accounts, and Dew Tour obligations, which is also part of its Adventure Sports Group.

On his Instagram page, Surfer Magazine editor-in-chief Todd Prodanovich revealed that issue number three, volume 61 would be the magazine’s last issue (after sister publication Surfing magazine stopped publishing in 2017). “The whole staff got let go yesterday, but I feel like we’re ending on a high note with this one,” he wrote.”It’s funny how you can work a job like this for ten years, and each issue is a completely new and different journey. I’ll really miss that part, and the mag in general, which ends on this issue after 60 years of publication.”

In a letter to contributors, Powder editor-in-chief Sierra Shafer penned, “As we are all painfully aware, COVID-19 has dramatically impacted our lives this year, leaving future shrouded in uncertainty. There is little it hasn’t touched and, going forward, this now includes Powder magazine. Effective November 20, our staff will be placed on an indefinite furlough and operations of the magazine, our website, and our social channels will be paused. We do not know if or when this hiatus will end. We will, however, be completing the final issue of the volume, the Photo Annual, on newsstands November 16.”

In the snowsports industry, the decision leaves Ski, FreeSkier and Backcountry magazines as the major remaining skiing titles covering the sport. And even they are sad to see Powder and the other titles go.

“I’m just very, very sad to hear about Powder and Bike. Sad for the staff, the former staff and all the contributors,” said Backcountry magazine publisher Adam Howard, an intern at Powder and Bike in 1997 and on the masthead as a contributing writer for a decade. “It’s like a parent has died. I started my career there before I knew what a career was. We modeled much of what Backcountry has become on what Powder, at its very core, was and still is. Shortly after I was there is when the corporate shuffle began and, sadly, none of the suits knew what to do with the titles. They never knew how much it meant to the community. And as for the community? If every person on Instagram crying about Powder going away was a subscriber, well, they wouldn’t be crying.”

The decision comes a year and a half after American Media, recently renamed A360 Media, purchased the magazine group. On February 1, 2019, American Media acquired the media assets of TEN (The Enthusiast Network) Publishing’s Adventure Sports Network (ASN), adding the brands to its Active Lifestyle Group. The acquisition gave AMI a total of 14 adventure and sports brands, including the newly acquired Bike, Powder, Surfer, Snowboarder and Transworld titles. The acquisition also included management of the celebrated Dew Tour, an extreme skate and snowsports event series founded in 2005 that also, at times, served as Olympic qualifying events for those disciplines. According to a press release on the acquisition, the buy also increased the Active Lifestyle Group’s digital footprint, delivering more than 35 million social media fans and followers when combined with its marquee title Men’s Journal.

“The opportunity to merge the incredible ASN brands with our recent acquisition of Men’s Journal establishes a significant digital network and underscores American Media’s commitment to diversifying our brand offerings and revenue streams,” said American Media Chairman and CEO David J. Pecker in a press release at the time. “I am confident that under the management of the Men’s Journal leadership, the addition of ASN’s incredible digital and social scale will be important factors in our continued growth and success.”

At the time of the acquisition, the company was planning to integrate the smaller niche brands’ vertical content into their horizontal title, Men’s Journal, while also keeping the smaller titles active. Powder, founded in 1973, and Surfer, founded in the early 1960s, have long been their respective sport’s core voices.

“ASN’s brands – focused on deep passion and engagement from their readership – are an extraordinary compliment to Men’s Journal,” said Men’s Journal Chief Content Officer Greg Emmanuel in the release. “Our audience places a premium on high-quality, compelling content, and the new brands will help to further establish us as the ultimate destination for sports and adventure content.”

Two months later, on April 18, 2019, the company sold its newsprint tabloids, including the National Enquirer, Globe and National Examiner to Hudson Media. “The sale of these brands shows their vitality in today’s newsstand marketplace where they continue to generate nearly $30 million in profit annually,” said Pecker in a press release, which also said the transaction left American Media with only $355 million of debt, enhancing the company’s cash flow.

The news has left fans and subscribers of the affected outdoor niche titles saddened. “Today is a tremendously sad day for fans of high-quality enthusiast publications and for Joni and me in particular,” eulogized Steve Casimiro, a former editor of Powder, on Adventure Journal.com (his wife, Joni, was the 14-year art director of Surfer). “The internet has changed almost everything, giving cyclists or skiers or surfers a bottomless soupbowl of ‘content.’ But it has not changed the special magic that happens when a group of passionate, talented editors, writers, and photographers pour their hearts and souls into telling stories designed to stand the test of time.

“The news…is shocking but not surprising,” he added. “Publishers face extreme challenges today. Typical magazines have…a tremendous amount sunk into fixed costs, while advertisers have a zillion other ways to reach customers and readers have a zillion other (free) choices…a publication has to respond to these challenges or it will die. A small, narrow-focused book owned by a giant corporation…has the odds stacked against it, as titles are bled for “efficiencies” while expectations are ratcheted unrealistically higher.”

On Aug 21 the company’s board combined American Media and Accelerate360, LLC, renaming American Media A360 Media, and naming President and CEO David J. Pecker Executive Advisor of A360 Media. “This is a transformative event that significantly reshapes Accelerate and American Media into a new type of media and marketing company with an unprecedented reach all the way to the sales floor,” said Mr. Parry in a press release.

Added new A360 Media President Chris Scardino, an 18-year veteran of American Media: “A360 Media will be unlike anything the industry has seen with an ability to create direct access to consumers for our more than 2,300 active advertising partners.”

According to its in-house report, A360 Media reaches more than 47 million men and women monthly with the company’s celebrity magazines, including Men’s Journal, Muscle & Fitness, Us Weekly, Closer, Life & Style, Star, In Touch, OK! and other celebrity and teen titles. The brand’s digital properties reportedly reach more than 60 million unique visitors monthly with more than 54 million social media fans and followers. The company’s businesses also include Accelerate360  which provides logistics, sales and distribution solutions for retailers and brands, and LifeToGo, an E-commerce and direct-to-consumer marketplace. Accelerate is also the largest periodical distributor in North America, delivering magazines to more than 55,000 retail locations weekly. A360 Media will remain based in New York with some operations and shared services moving to Accelerate’s headquarters in Georgia.