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 An Obituary of Pinkbike And Other Outdoor-Related Media Creators Bought By Outside Inc.

The Pinkbike as I first got to know it, was a goofy mountain bike news and review source with a mostly unmoderated comments section and an unhealthy addiction to “bro-science”. I loved it, and I have read articles nearly every day since I discovered the site. That all changed one fateful day in November 2021, when Radek Burkat announced that he had sold Pinkbike to Outside, after running the site mostly by himself for 23 years. Now, to most people that would be no big deal, but to us, the loyal readers and commenters of Pinkbike, this was the beginning of the end. The Pinkbike community immediately started to immigrate to other rival websites such as Vital MTB, and NSMB. I and other Pinkbike community members immediately realized this was not an isolated incident. In early 2021, Bike MAG went under, and the rights and former employees were bought out by Outside Inc. Again, in early 2021 Outside Inc. bought Backpacker magazine, also in early 2021, Outside Inc. acquired Gaia GPS, and Big Stone Publishing (Publisher of Rock and Ice, Trail Runner, Ascent, Gym Climber, and other popular publications) in late 2020. As many have pointed out, It feels less like Outside Inc. is trying to expand it’s audience, and more like it is trying to gain a monopoly over North American outdoor publications, especially since they are buying up not just one mountain bike-related website, but several.
This is a problem for several reasons. Most notably, they have put most of these publications behind some sort of paywall, contradicting their so-called “mission” to expand the outdoor community to those less privileged. They hold an overwhelming amount of sway within the outdoor media ranks, allowing them to push their agenda out to the multitudes with little to no competition; they hold the power of the majority, which is bad. Outdside Inc. is also known for drawing attention to little-known and local secret spots, increasing the amount of traffic these fragile ecosystems must endure. In many cases, the quality of the content put out by these websites and magazines owned by Outside Inc. drops dramatically and often skews more toward ads and consumerism, than the tips, tricks, stories, and reviews the publications were originally known for.
When Outside Inc. forces a previously free website to put up a paywall under the guise of making more “quality content”, and promising that most content will remain free, but reduces the quality of that content to shameless ads, clickbait, and links to other websites that just happen to be behind paywalls, it at least makes everyone feel a little unwelcome, and at worst blocks people’s access to getting outside by withholding those unwilling or unable to pay’s access to the very thing that might inspire them to get outside. Getting outside is expensive enough with gear purchases and travel, so making paywalls on an online place has to be the worst type of gatekeeping in an otherwise open to beginners industry (one could even argue that the outdoor industry is driven by excited beginners). So, if the whole point of buying up outdoor publications is to get more people outside, then putting everything behind a paywall is definitely not the way to go about it. At this point, it appears that Outside Inc. is only in this to make money, not to inspire people, or even to provide quality content, and one might point out that Pinkbike thrived as an entirely free website for 20+ years, so no one can say that it can’t be done.
Monopolies on entire industries are banned throughout most of the world for many good reasons. But even owning a large number of publications or companies in a given industry should prompt further investigations into the buyer’s intentions. Especially in an industry as important to the future of our planet as the outdoor industry. The best way to get people to care about something is to show them it’s value, so getting people to experience nature outside of going for a walk in the park is integral to our future. I am not sure of Outside Inc.’s intentions but I do think that they have a dangerous ability to control the opinions of many consumers through the types of content the publications under them produce. If the free copy of Outside magazine (Outside Inc.’s flagship publication) I received with my latest Backpacker magazine is anything to go by, the content they produce leans heavily in favor of loosely concealed advertisements and not concealed at all advertisements for expensive trips. Worse yet, the new version of “tips and tricks”, at least as far as Outside Inc. is concerned is revealing local secret spots.
Take Hanging Lake, a beautiful, blue, and very fragile ecologically unique lake at the top of a short but steep one-mile hike just off of I-70 in Colorado. It was relatively unknown until the advent of geotagging on Instagram (a feature which allows users to add the location where a picture was taken to their post). Hanging Lake rapidly exploded, and visitation increased exponentially. People began to disobey the no swimming signs, and the fragile lake was put in peril. Officials were forced to implement a permit and shuttle system to protect the lake before it was ruined. That is one instance I know of, but there are others, and most of them aren’t being caused by Instagram. They are being caused mostly (but not exclusively) by publications owned by Outdside Inc., and most of these hidden gems do not have the same amount of protection available as Hanging Lake did. The added traffic at these previously rarely walked trails will eventually cause irreparable damage to the environment around them, especially if the infrastructure around them cannot be maintained enough to accommodate the increased traffic.
Perhaps the most trivial of these reasons is the quality of the content produced, but that does not make it irrelevant. The quality content I and many others are used to on Pinkbike, and other publications are quickly becoming a thing of the past. For instance, Pinkbike generally does a goofy year-in-review, in which they reveal the best comments, most read articles, best new products, and most interesting racing team moves. That did not happen this year, and was instead replaced with a couple of measly articles about 2021 as a whole. This is not an isolated incident, my Backpacker magazines are becoming ever shorter, yet are filled with more ads than ever (and I pay for that one). Instead the vast majority of the quality content we are used to has and likely will continue to dwindle in favor of shameless ads and vacation giveaways, and I just have to point out that Outside Inc. is listed as a retail company, not a media outlet, and is owned by a ghost (all you can find out about the dude is his name).
I will miss having goofy and weird outdoor publications to read, but most of all I will miss the small website feel of Pinkbike. It used to feel like a tight-knit community, I mean everyone knew who the wackjobs were in the comments, and they got tagged and downvoted all the time. Now, where will we go to get our fill of bad puns, and out-of-place comments? I for one am in favor of a new MTB website called Purplebike, but for now, I’ll eventually stop reading Pinkbike altogether, and spend ever more time on NSMB. I hope this has shed some light on Outside Inc. and the impact it has, and maybe it will even cause you to cancel your Outside+ subscription
Sincerely,
Supergirl56