Outside Owner Lays Off Large Percentage of Magazine Staff

The parent company of Outside magazine has laid off 20 members of the magazine’s editorial and business staffs, leaving doubt about the ongoing viability of the publication in print and online. The news came in a companywide email last Thursday from CEO Robin Thurston announcing the purchase of Inntopia, travel booking software used by Vail, Alterra Mountain Company, and others. Employees affected by the mass firing said one print editor and three online editors remain. Those who lost their jobs include longtime top editor Chris Keyes, thirty-year veteran and head of sustainability Kristin Hostetter, and brand director Mary Turner.

Robin Thurston did not respond directly to a request for comment, but a member of Outside’s external public relations firm emailed this statement:

“With the acquisition of Inntopia, we decided to restructure some of our editorial team to allow our outdoor vertical experts to own their categories across the entire platform. Focusing on categories like Snow, Cycling, Hiking + Camping, Wellness, MTB, Tri/Run, Climbing, and Food + Fitness enables our content creators to contribute their expertise across our portfolio and grow critical areas of audience engagement like video, mapping, and our activity feed platform. Our editorial team across all of the Outside Inc. brands remains one of our largest groups of full-time employees, in addition to freelancers and contributors who support our beloved content and storytelling. Last week’s layoffs impacted 20 individuals across the Editorial, Product, Marketing, Sales, and Finance teams, eight of which were local to Colorado.”

Thurston did comment to A Media Operator, which covers online publishing. He said, “Many people come to our properties, they want to know where to go, right? They want to know what to do. If we write a story about the top five ski resorts in North America, we don’t guide you after that into the travel booking. We just kind of say, ‘Hey, here’s some great information from a travel writer, good luck on your own, go find how to book that. Go find the ski instructor. Go figure out how to buy tickets.’”

Thurston also told AMO he plans to take the company public in three to four years.

Backed by venture capital, Thurston’s Pocket Media bought three divisions from Active Interest Media in 2020 (including Backpacker, SKI, Climbing, and other titles) and then purchased Outside from longtime owner Larry Burke in 2021. It also bought Pinkbike, Gaia mapping service, and numerous outdoor-recreation publications. Since then, it has funneled editorial content into subscription-based Outside+ and gone through two previous rounds of major layoffs.

This recent round of layoffs has left employees reeling. Those we spoke to were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Many are negotiating their severance; the one offered by the company was “weak,” said one.

Positions that were eliminated include the vice president and general manager of Outdoors, the VP of data and analytics, senior brand director, editor in chief, managing editor, three senior editors, two associate editors, assistant editor, senior photo editor, and group creative director. Other business side layoffs include the director of sales operations, director of SEO, associate director, technical ad ops, social media analyst, and digital production senior manager.