New Free Climbing Mag for USA

by Dougald MacDonald & Jack Geldard </a>From Dougald MacDonald´s Blog: Of all the things I saw at the Outdoor Retailer show while reporting for the trade show´s daily paper, the most surprising was the news that a West Virginia?based team is planning to launch a new climbing magazine this fall. Dead Point Magazine isa glossy bimonthly that will take aim at young climbers, with its firstissue slated for October 15. With the tiny climbing market alreadycrowded by four national magazines?Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice, and Urban Climber?and magazine sales generally down, observers must ask: Are these guys smoking crack?Maybe, maybe not. Dead Point hopesto gain a foothold through free distribution at climbing gyms andretailers, along with a hefty online presence. ?We are definitely goingafter the youth market,? founder Matt Stark told me as we watched theMammut Bouldering Championships. Stark explained that his magazinewould have an ?edgy look? and would take more chances with featurestories than the existing magazines do. ?We´re not going shy away fromrisqué articles,? he said. ?Our second issue is going to turn someheads.? UK climbers might want to ask the question: “What happened to Gravity magazine?” The free publication that launched in the UK in 2006 and unfortunately is no longer available.Perhaps the team over at Dead Point should take a look at what happened to Gravity? The climbing media is a small cake and there are lots of people taking a slice.A lot of questions are being asked behind the scenes in the UK climbing media – Where are we heading? Who will survive?Jobs have been cut and budgets are very slim. Media in general is changing; this year music downloads overtook CD sales for the first time. A question that many people pose to us at UKClimbing.com is “When are you guys launching a magazine?” Do you think we should? Or do we have enough printed climbing media out there already?

QuelleUKClimbing