Friday, October 17, 2008

Alpinist's Demise?

In a comment to the preceding post, Dougald MacDonald alluded to the demise of the Alpinist, the high-end large-format glossy magazine that presented itself as an alternative to the mainstream. Their website confirms it:

"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."

In a weird coincidence, this event combines aspects of both my previous posts regarding the economy and media in climbing. I had already discussed the magazine's unsustainable business model last year, so it was not surprising to hear the news but the comments of readers and subscribers says it all.

I'm sure more facts will emerge from this sad event, and I will pass along what I can find out.

4 comments:

Narc said...

perfect timing considering I just subscribed...seems doubtful they will be sending out refunds

Peter Beal said...

That seems to be the consensus regarding subscriptions.

Dan Levison said...

It's sad to see such a high-quality publication go South. Having said that, I always questioned their fiscal strategy (lack of market research) of limited advertising and high prices in a market where the spending demographic is really low not to mention the recent economic landscape.

Peter Beal said...

Go to Dougald's blog, The Mountain World, for his views on this issue.