UKC

Hello All, 

This post is basically just me seeing if people would be interested in a new climbing magazine. I'm a photographer and have had the thought about creating a magazine for a while. 

I'd like it to be more high end with good printing and quality, featuring top class photos, well thought out stories and interviews from within the climbing world rather than news and product reviews. I would probably like it to be boulder, sport and trad focused and not venture into ice and alpinism as they feel rather separate to me. 

I have done a dig and the only similar magazine I can find is Summit, which looks amazing. 

Just curious to know peoples thoughts, if they'd be interested, and what they'd like to see in this kind of magazine. Thanks 

As you're a photographer, I get your interest in physical printed media. As a profitable - commercial enterprise wouldn't online make more sense? I'm just thinking out loud; good luck with your venture, there's something very pleasing about physical media.

By Summit do you mean the BMC magazine? That is online only now?

You appear to be wanting to make "Alpinist", but without the alpine. Having seen how Alpinist has struggled over the years, I would say that the market is small and commercial success is hard won.

There are a growing number of high end magazines popping up, spotter is fantastic and Mellow managed to sell out pretty quickly when it dropped it's bi-annual subscription. I just wonder how much support there would be for smaller, more niche magazines. You could always trial something similar to the Climbing Zine and see if it's worthwhile 

thanks! yea totally it probably won't be hugely successful money wise but I guess I'd just like to make something physical that people can enjoy in their hands and share around. Maybe society is has totally moved away from physical media but personally feel it would be great to keep it alive. 

sorry should have specified, I think it's called Summit Journal now, they restarted 2 years ago I think. 

Yea maybe there isn't such a big market for it. 

Yea spotter is fantastic and looking forward to Mellow. We'll see to be honest, still just a thought n my head right now. 

have you looked at what's on offer outside the UK ? In France there are several magazines, most cover alpinism as well as rockclimbing but Grimper (https://www.grimper.com/mag ) is purely rockclimbing from memory although personally I find the distinction a bit artificial - would you include big rock climbs in the mountains ?  There are also German, Italian, Spanish etc magazines which might give you some ideas

I miss the old Mountain and also Altitudes, a French version of the American Ascent, but it stopped after only 3 editions so guess it didn't sell. But they both had a lot of snow/ice/alpine climbing.

Have you looked at that sort of high end print model in other sports? I think Rouleur sounds similar to what you're talking about but for cycling.

I did have a look for international stuff, Grimper like you say stood out the most but a lot of other mags have stopped printing or gone fully online.

I did find surfers Journal which is fantastic, but didn't think to delve into other sports, I will have a look. Thanks 

Beat me to it. I think a climbing magazine in the format of Rouler would work. 

E

I'd buy a rock climbing magazine, with some articles by regular people and routes for regular people. And famous/expert people as well, of course.

Don't think it needs to be top end. 6 quid is about right for a magazine with pictures.

I used to buy Climber, but only if it had a few articles about places I was interested in.

I like the idea of a magazine without any ice, snow or slush.

I have submitted some photos to Summit Journal and have a few of their first editions (new editions as the numbers continue from the previous incarnation of the magazine) it is similar in approach in design to Rouleur. However despite being enthusiasts setting up a passion project they are also a quite large team of professionals with multiple copy editors/designers and marketing consultants and it shows in the finished product and the level of quality advertising 

The pay for photography is reasonable (for a market that likes freebies) but cover price of the journal is steep

it would be great to see a journal with a strong photography ethos come out but don’t underestimate the amount of work to put out a quality product. However if it’s something you decide to do please get in touch.

Something like "Rocksport" and "Crags" in fact.  Some of us older members will recall these magazines with fond memories.  The first few Rocksports looked like something thrown together in the shed but the content was very good.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for you to come up with something and succeed. "One offs" like Pembroke Bond and Friends in High Places succeeded (I think, I bought a copy of both and I believe they sold out, not idea if they made any money though!), so there is a market there (armchair climbers like me who don't get out as much as we would like so live vicariously through climbing media, probably with some disposable income to shell out on a high quality publication and a hankering for the physical in an increasingly digital world) but managing to tap into that market and getting them to continually shell out is the challenge whilst managing the commercials of not having too many ads but keeping the magazine afloat.

I don't think the text would count for much in this internet age, and the only way it might succeed is with a very high quality reproduction of photographs (as in the Royal Photographic Society Journal) so that each issue would become something of a collector's item. But even then, it would probably be commercially very precarious.

My friend is a co-owner and the editor of a magazine called Cross Country, which I think is the only magazine (at least in English) for unpowered flight - paragliding mainly but I believe they also cover hang gliding and gliding. They still send editions out around the world, either monthly or bimonthly. I'm not sure what their business model is but has kept Ed gainfully employed for a couple of decades! I can't imagine paragliding is bigger than climbing but maybe it's small enough to not be spread into national silos as much as climbing. 

I was a contributor to Climb magazine up to the end. It was really sad, because Ian and Dave had plans to keep going and we're going IIRC for a really well produced magazine that you'd read on an iPad or laptop, but then the new owners who were backing it very quickly pulled the plug. It was something along those lines anyway. That is a decade ago now. 

Hi Ben

a link to Summit journal, it print only but worth trying to get a copy to have a look. There seems to be a (precarious) market for good journals and I will occasionally buy journals like Rouluer or photographic journals in the same way I would buy a book, something to keep on the bookshelf to flick through on a wet winters evening.

https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=UL5PPM&c=01JMW6...

Have you looked at back issues of Climber, which paused print publication earlier this year? That featured high quality photography, often by the editor, David Simmonite. David makes his money as a professional photographer and I always had the strong  impression from the few times I spoke to him that editing and publishing Climber was essentially done as a labour of love. Sadly, it proved unsustainable as a monthly, going from 12 issues a year, to 6, to none currently. According to the website it has plans to relaunch in a journal style in 2026. It seems very few climbers nowadays want to shell out regularly for a magazine. I certainly miss Climber. I wrote a couple of articles for it, on climbing poetry. Maybe that contributed to its demise! I admire your optimism and wish you luck.

Climbers are too often too parsimonious for their own good. I wish the OP luck but think he will struggle even with a brilliant product (except maybe a one-off collector's item on a specific theme and good marketing).

The Hebtro co clothing company have started a magazine as well called bother, it's spenny but you get a voucher for the same amount to use with them as well.