Customer Reviews

Outside (1-year)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

(I sent the following letter to their customer service last week)

After about 15 years of getting your magazine, I have decided not to renew my subscription. It is a shame that your once great publication has become such a joke.

After receiving your November issue, and spending 10 minutes removing all the inserts and gimmick ads so I could actually read it, I found no substance. Instead there is a fashion section (yikes), a `hot list' with young barely dressed men and women (hey I'm not against a little sex and skin, but I'll subscribe to Vogue or Maxim for that), an article about Larry David's wife that might as well have come from People magazine, an Aussie travelogue that I am convinced their tourist board paid for, all sandwiched in between so many ads for monster SUVs and other crap that you need a compass and a map just to keep up with where the articles worth reading continue from one page to the next.

What happened to the great writers like Krakauer? What happened to having any environmental conscience? Where are the stories of adventure that are real and make you want to go there? Maybe I am just getting older than your current demographic. I haven't lost my sense of adventure, which is why I live in Durango CO and spend a lot of time outdoors. I used to look to your magazine for inspiration. Now I half expect the cover to tout stories on `killer abs'. You've become the Clear Channel of the outdoor magazine world.

Get real again and I may come back.

Outside Magazine and I have had an up and down relationship for many years. At times, Outside grabs me with great journalism, awesome photos, and fun facts. I've lliked its fearless tackling of environmental issues and its ability to transport me to truly exotic places. At other times, i question its journalistic integrity, emphasis on the latest and greatest gear, and shameless trumpeting of past successes. At times the advice it gives also seems more aimed at insecurities (you need this gear to be successful, you need to live HERE to live a fulfilling life) than I think a magazine focusing on fun in the outdoors should.

Cases in point:

- I'm not sure what criteria it uses for recommending gear but at times I question whether the recommendations come because a certain company is an advertiser or because the editors truly believe that a certain bike, watch, pair of sunglasses are really all that. I don't get the sense that recommendations come as the result of rigorous field testing a la Backpacker Magazine, etc. Also the gear tends to be super expensive. Whatever happened to just enjoying the outdoors via the John Muir approach: just taking off with the clothes on your back and the nearest snack at hand? Because I live in a mountain town I see this ridiculous emphasis on having Just The Right Gear/Clothing for every occasion all the time. It's a little silly.

- Recycling or contradictory fitness advice. Outside did an outstanding series back in 1999 about achieving total fitness but then in subsequent issues redirected its fitness programs under the same type of heading (Achieve your best fitness now!) that made me wonder if they're just running with current fads. I know a magazine has to really work at staying fresh but I think consistency is the best approach here.

- Dudes---John Krakauer wrote a great series and subsequent book about the tragedy on Everest in 1996. But that ship has sailed. If that's the only hook you can hang your hat on the magazine's got problems. We get that your magazine took the lead on that story. Stop reminding us of it.

There is a strange mixture of articles in this magazine. Some are about outdoor activities- though not really about *you* doing them, but stories about someone else. Other articles seem completely general interest that would not be of any more interest to an outdoorsy person than anyone else. There are entertaining travel articles about writers' trips without too much practical information if you were to plan a trip. However, in the back there is a large section of advertisements from all kinds of outdoor adventure places. The photography section is lovely; there are a couple of pages of just artistic photos. For an active outdoor magazine, it seems a little too passive.

"Outside" is...a horrible magazine. There's not a nicer way to put it. This is no longer the magazine of Jon Krakauer, it's something you get a year's subscription for free by buying at certain retailers. The articles are scarce between endless mentions of expensive gear and tips and tricks that are blindingly obvious. The magazine isn't even about being outside. For Olympic coverage the magazine did not cover the Jamacian sprinters, implosion of US track and field, or even the effect of Title IX on American amateur sports. No, "Outside" put Michael Phelps on the cover, several months late. Phelps equipment and environment are engineered to 3 decimal places and his sport doesn't even take place outside. Slight oversight there guys. This magazine is for people that want to look like they might go outside. So if you really want $100 t-shirts or bicycle wheels made of the latest version of Unobtainum to show off you might enjoy "Outside". Everyone else should just stick with the latest REI catalog.

I'm not sure who's at the helm of this operation but I'd be willing to bet they don't get Outside too often. Not to be too cynical about it, but I just don't find this mag to be as USEFUL as it was before. If you like LOTS of articles on who the coolest extreme sports stars are, how they got their abs, and what gear they're wearing, subscribe NOW. The magazine looks amazing, the photography is top notch and they still manage to come up with a thorny article on the environment periodically. But for my money, it just feels like the editorial staff has been plucked from New York image mags that do one thing really well - SELL. I read National Geographic Adventure, and unlike Outside, I USE IT for information because it has CONTENT.

... or any other corporatized magazine. I've read Outside for several years now, and it's become just another glorified catalog to sell stuff with shallow writing: e.g. best Tequilas in Mexico, etc, etc. I used to enjoy this magazine when it contained incisive writing from John Krakauer and others, and it was about the outdoors. Now it's basically corporate drivel. If I covered the title it could be Men's Journal or any such mag. I imagine that these editors must go from place to place taking their homogeneity and dull corporate editorial skills with them. This will be the last year that I read it.

There is some very good writing to be found in Outdoor- Randy Wayne White and John Krakauer come immediately to mind. Excellent reading for the armchair traveller. The bulk of the magazine, however, is an extended advertisement for high-tech outdoors gear, punctuated by ads for SUVs the size of earthmoving equipment that every true outdoorsman or woman needs.

Outdoors is rather like the numerous amateur photography magazines that obsess about equipment and yet have very little to say about the aestheic of art. When I think of my favorite outdoor adventures I don't think about the equipment I used, or the many and wonderful modern conveniences I brought along. Instead I think of just being in a quiet place, away from flashing and beeping electronics that fill my workday.

I subscribed to Outside when it first appeared many years ago. The writing was superb. The magazine truly covered the outside. Jon Krakauer's writing was top-notch and I really enjoyed David Quammen's informative "Natural Acts" articles. Then there was the monthly guide to what was happening in the night sky (meteor showers, lunar eclipses, etc.). It was an intelligent publication. Now? It's nothing but a place for gritty macho boys to show off, and for manufacturers of macho fossil-fuel-hogging motorized toys. The only time women are featured in this magazine now is when they're half- or less- dressed. It's sexist, it's superficial, and it's crap. I don't know why they changed the format, but it was definitely for the worst. I dropped my subscription back in the '90s and haven't been back since and have no desire to ever again subscribe to this cheapened version of what was once a great magazine. If I could give it no stars, I would!

As a subscriber to this magazine for the past two years, I can say without reservation that it is simply terrific. I look forward to each and every issue. Glossy and colorful, it is replete with many well written articles and essays on exotic, little known, or far away places, as well as on off beat or high adrenaline sports. There are also many eye catching, superlative photographs that illustrate and illuminate.

If one is interested in mountaineering, rock climbing, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, sailing, or travel to little known places where one may indulge in these activities, then this magazine will be of interest. It is packed with information that will appeal to those who have an active, adventurous lifestyle, as well as to armchair adventurers, of which I am one.

I am a woman who enjoys several outdoor activities and recently I have been looking to increase my activity level. I thought this magazine subscription would be just the thing to inspire me! However, having recieved 3 issues now, and read each one cover to cover, I had to ask around my outdoorsy friends if I ordered a gay men's magazine by mistake. I'm not making that up. Every issue features photo after glossy photo of bare chested men in seductive poses or in tight clothing or flexing their muscles, and there is not EVER a female in sight. I looked again through the 3 issues I own and I found a tiny, tiny picture of 1 woman, very butch, billed as "photographer." But oh, the 5 page articles on how men can improve the appearance of their calves by freezing and injecting their own blood! Or the top of the line fashion they can sweat in! Or the interviews with amazing men (that I have never heard of and come on, I don't think I'm that out of the loop.) Nothing wrong with a magazine targeting the wealthy, narcissistic queer woodsman, I know many guys who would love that publication. However it's not exactly what I'm looking for as an outdoor, active woman, you see. This is just... well beyond being pretty crappy journalism, this is way not what I expected. There wasn't even anything fun to read or any good photos to look at in this. What a sad waste of money.