Backpacker Magazine

I'm not trying to start a thread where we all discuss how much Backpacker magazine sucks, although that might be what it turns into.

I'm just wondering what, if anything, you guys think about their move to a "regional" format. Apparently, their newest issues are custom-tailored to the region of the U.S. in which you get them. This means-- if you buy an issue on a newstand in New York City, you'll get a Northeast edition which is focused on the Northeast. That same day, hop on a plane to Miami, where you can buy the same issue, except those Northeast articles have been replaced by Southeast ones.

Personally, I'm pissed. I put up with all of the ads, and all the shortened piecemeal articles designed to appeal to the MTV generation of hikers who can't read an entire page of information, but this is it. I didn't buy this magazine to find hikes in my backyard; I got it to find out about places around the rest of the country. Who needs a magazine to give you details about hikes in the Whites? I can come here, make a single post, and have 19 people telling me their opinions/experiences on a trail.

Just curious if anyone saw this, and what your reaction was.

ETE,
Is that Ed Abbey?

You know, so many people ask me that, that it might be! Maybe someday someone'll find the source. I just thought some genius in Nike's Marketing department dreamt it up.

ExploretheEast -- I definitely agree with you. I'm disappointed about the change. I travel a few times a year and I liked seeing hikes from different areas -- I clip them out and organize them by state. When visiting Florida & Ohio this year, it was great to have clips of hikes that were near the places we stayed.

While I can understand why they went to regional editions, it's a lot less interesting for me. I don't have any problems finding places in the northeast to hike.

- Ivy

ExploreTheEast said:

I'm just wondering what, if anything, you guys think about their move to a "regional" format. Apparently, their newest issues are custom-tailored to the region of the U.S. in which you get them.

Personally, I'm pissed. I put up with all of the ads, and all the shortened piecemeal articles designed to appeal to the MTV generation of hikers who can't read an entire page of information, but this is it. I didn't buy this magazine to find hikes in my backyard; I got it to find out about places around the rest of the country. Who needs a magazine to give you details about hikes in the Whites?
I can come here, make a single post, and have 19 people telling me their opinions/experiences on a trail.

Click to expand...

Interesting take on this. You know, Backpacker had its roots in the northeast with our own Harry Roberts. His magazine "Wilderness Camping" based in Albany focussed on the Adirondacks and New England. I found it extremely useful for young inexperienced me just learning of my own backyard wilderness. When Harry gave it up in the 1970s it was bought out (or became) "Backpacker". My subscription was automatically transferred. It wasn't long before nary an article on the northeast was to be found in its pages. There was more money in making a picture book for the CA and CO yuppies of the time I guess. Pretty as it was, I was in no position to travel to those wide open high mountain and desert places so I dropped my subscription. I wanted to know about places I could go to. That was a long time before I could go online to have 19 people telling me their experiences here in the forum. I didn't know about any recent changes Backpacker has made to regionalization. But I wouldn't subcribe again now because of the MTV style and useless flashy ads reasons you mention.

I think all magazine are a waste of money today. It is nothing but advertiesments. At least it seems that way. The articles seem to repeat themselves every few years. Who needs magazines when you have VFTT.

Backpacker isn't the same

I've had a subscription (gift from one of my kids) for a number of years. It's been on a continuing downtrend for a long time. Jon Dorn, the new Editor, has accelerated this. It is becoming more like Outsider magazine -- very 'in your face'.

I don't mind the regionalization except that the crowds at each place that is mentioned will probably be filled with many people during the following summer hike season. That, the black flies and mosquitos are good reasons to go out in the woods during the fall or winter seasons.

I stopped subscribing to Backpacker a few years ago, when the ads became the focus of the magazine. sad to see they've switched to a regional fomat. Personally, I enjoy travelling to to other states and countries for the purpose of hiking. I'm very interested in what's available outside the NE.

Nadine

Backpacker Complaints

I get several outdoor adventure type mags & to be honest I enjoy them all - in spite of often piecemeal reading and advertisements galore (actually I do learn about new stuff from the ads). In any case they all provide a way for me to learn about other wonderful adventures around the world. I know the advertising is a necessary evil & one of the first things I often do when I get my mag is tear out all the info cards, new subscription offers etc. But you know, with Backpacker it's possible they tried this new format in response to subscriber suggestions. My basic belief is if you are not happy about something go to the source. This forum is always a great place to chat but Backpacker isn't going to know you don't like the change by your input here. Be proactive and drop them a line and tell them how you feel. If you've ever been in business you'll know what I'm talking about; there's nothing worse then having unhappy customers stop supporting you but you have no idea why. With the ease of the internet you can copy and paste what you've said here and send it off to them. Who knows you may just help make a change for the positive.

Regional Editions

The regional editions are likely the child of the add sales department, not the editorial department. By regionalizing the the magazine they can offer less expensive but equally effective add space for regional businesses.
Example: A Hudson River rafting company can now by a quater page add for $5,000 in the regional edition. In the non-regional format the same add would cost $10,000. The rafting company will now only reach 1/3 of the people they would have reached before but they probably don't care about those 2/3 because they are not likely to use their rafting service on the Hudson because they live outside of the Northeast The magazine can now generate more revenue by attracting advertisers who may not have been able to afford the national edition. National companies like the clothing manufactures can still buy add space to cover all editions.

The magazine now has to create some "regional" content to justify the changes. Most of the magazine is likely the same but with different covers and some regional content.

backpacker mag

Well said Shadow
IMO IT REALLY NOT THAT BAD OF MAG, iLEARN SOME THINGS AND IT SPURS ME ON TO FIND OTHER INFO FROM OTHER SOURCES.
"IS YOUR GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY"

I will still keep up my subscription. I do this knowing that I am not the typical person that they target (I was 20 years ago). I would assume that most VFTTers also aren't the type of folk they target.

It appears to me that they are trying to increase readership in each area, which means their target audience are folks that don't really get out, folks that don't really have gear or folks active in other pursuits (traveling, light dayhiking, biking, blading, running, ...) and want to try something a bit different.

S'funny, I picked up the first 40 issues around 10 years ago. (Written much differently from today's editions.) When I lived in PA I was very close to Rodale's offices - I got in touch with them one day and asked them If I could donate the issues to their archive dept. They said no, that they have enough back issues. I was floored, as I thought they would just love having a set....
Oh well...Something in my attic for my son to read someday (along with all issues from 1991 or 1992 forward).

I personally think Backpacker has gotten better over the last year or two. It seems to me that they've started to explore the more obscure. I don't really need to spend 5 bucks on a magazine to find out that hiking the Grand Canyon, White Mountains or Yellowstone is great. Tell me something I don't know. I'm not into UTMs, but I think their "instant hike" cards are a GREAT idea - a sign that they're moving with the times, which is more than I can say aboiut some magazines. I hadn't bought Backpacker in years, but probably picked up a half a dozen issues this year and loved their Highpointing series.

I suppose it's all a matter of personal taste.

Also, Like Mtn Mike said, I have to say I'm not sure the "regional" observation as presented is accurate. I have the December issue in front of me and see no indication of a Northeast slant. It actually focuses on the West. There is a regional focus in each issue I've bought this year but it's not necessarily YOUR region. Of the 12 instant hike cards in the December issue, one is from the Northeast (Westkill in the Catskills). I think the February 2005 issue I saw but didn't buy focused on the Midwest.

Nessmuk’s mention of Wilderness Camping Magazine and Harry Roberts, an Adirondacks guy, brought back good memories. WC was low-budget, un-glossy but full of good information and interesting, if often quirky, articles (guys winter tarp camping—in the early 70s—for example). In a way it was a lot like a good forum—all sorts of opinions and practices. Harry would answer letters and talk to you on the phone if you had a question or a comment (to be fair, Jon Dorn would probably do the same). One of my favorite mags of all time. WC’s ownership sold out to Ziff-Davis at the same time that Ziff-Davis bought Backpacker. ZD killed Wilderness Camping immediately and all but killed BP by handing it over all but entirely to the ad side. If you think today’s Backpacker is ad-driven, go take a look at some of those nauseating ZD issues.

I’ve recently stopped subscribing to BP after taking it from Issue #1 (minus those Ziff-Davis years—I’m not a total moron). I just don’t like the feel of it anymore. I think it’s generational. It feels to me like a mag written for relatively inexperienced people in their 20s, which is fine, but that means there’s not much for me there anymore. (Maybe I’ve just become cranky in my old age. I’ve stopped getting Outside, too. Extreme this, as Robert De Niro might say.)

Harry Roberts also wrote what I think were two of the best instructional books on the out of doors: Movin’ Out (three seasons) and Movin’ On (winter). Personal and subjective, like Colin Fletcher, but briefer, less obsessive, and more to the point. And Fletcher had nowhere near the cold-weather material that Movin’ On had. Unfortunately, Harry died way too young, and both these books are out of print and sadly out of date in their particulars, though their basic treatment of things holds up very well.

I've got the December 2004 issue of BP on my lap right now, and to be honest, I didn't really notice that it had been "regionalized."

I did, however, not enjoy pawing through 1/2 of the magazine filled with kayaking/rafting articles and the other 1/2 covered in ads (one of which I didn't even realize was an ad until I saw the superscript "special advertisement" at the top of the page.)

In the past I have used Backpacker as a reference tool, gleaning information on everything from trail recipes to my favorite, ultralight gear. This last issue had 13 stinking pages dedicated to an article about Promise Keepers taking a rafting trip on the Colorado! What the crap? I agree that it's turning into Outdoor magazine, and I will not be subscribing like I was planning to up until the recent format change. I'll continue to get coffee stains on the issues off the rack at BN and not buy them unless something leaps off the page at me.

Possible future uses for the December issue? Lining my dog's crate. Firestarter. TP. Wiping the oil dipstick. Applying with direct pressure to a wound. Killing flies.

I don't know, I agree that the magazine has become "trendy" and full of adds, but I too tend to use it as a reference tool. You never know when a good tip or recipe will pop up.
The one issue I save every year is the annual gear review. You can't beat it if you're looking for something in particular. I needed boots and was able to read up on dozens before I narrowed it down to three or four, then I visited the stores and tried them. I ended up with the Montrail Torre GX and I love them. I might not have ended up with those had it not been for that annual issue.
Anyway, I guess my point is that the magazine can be useful, just maybe not as often as before.....

Camper58

mag

I buy Backpacker on occasions but not all the time. IMO it is geared towards neophytes for sure. If you know what your doing out there you dont need most of it, although I do see some interesting tips now and then. As far as the places they profile, they are geared towards people who have been few places if you ask me. I mean, with the internet you can research the whole world.
The ads are the main point, if you buy the mag, thats what you get ads, there is little substance to absorb, kind of a shame used to be a great mag, but then again, when I was a neophyte, I thought it was all good, maybe thats the point.

Just curious.... for those of you who subscribe, or read regularly - how would you say their website compares to the printed mag?

Backpacker.com

As far as being able to gather gear tips and technique advice etc etc. When I did read Backpacker a lot, it was almost exlcusively for this purpose. Rarely was it for the cover story or special articles.

I wonder if occasionally poping your head into the website would net the same results without the ads and rafting stories about promise keepers (not to mention the subscription cost)

We get it.....

We get it too. Is it useful? Perhaps not in the conventional sense in that we pour over it to glean priceless tidbits that will undouptably further our backwoods knowledge base from within the pages, which on very rare occasions just might happen.

Nope, quite simply, we fork over our annual $25 and will continue to do so, because when your sitting on the "crapper", it serves to pass the time nicely , It holds my intrest better then "Popular Mechanics", "MAD Magazine" and "Highlights", so in the end, it's worth the price of admission?.

Of course, we get Adirondack Life, Adirondac and Explorer too. Those mags are more specific to my interest, but in the end what they most provide is just nice easy, plesant background reading material on topic I enjoy. If you want the "down and dirty" nitty gritty of specifics of the NE woods, or general BC questions, come here and post early and often. worked 100% of the time for me so far.

As far as ads, annoying for sure, but hey I still watch TV too

I would like to comment that I find the writing for feature stories in Outside magazine are more consistently in-depth and interesting than Backpacker. Just my opinion.

I get Backpacker, I am a bookstore browser, not a subscriber. I like when they feature hikes/places that I have been or would like to go. The ads? Well if they are interesting I read them, if not I move on. I honestly don't see the big deal that others are making. I could do without the 2 pages every issue dedicated to backpacking cuisine.

Hooked on the Outdoors is becoming my favorite mag along with Adventure Sports.

Peace.