According to Adventure-Journal, Bike Mag has been shut down by its owner and publisher American Media, along with Powder, Snowboarder, and Surfer magazines. Steve Casimiro, founding editor of Bike Mag, writes that the staff of Bike was furloughed and that American Media has left only one editor to run operations at Snowboarder magazine.
The group of magazines were acquired by American Media less than two years ago from The Enthusiast Network’s Adventure Sports Network.
“I am confident that under the management of the Men’s Journal leadership, the addition of ASN’s incredible digital and social scale will be important factors in our continued growth and success,” said American Media Chairman and CEO David J. Pecker in a press release about the acquisition last year.
Heading the press release, American Media called itself “a leading publisher of celebrity journalism, health and fitness, and lifestyle brands.” The company also owns Men’s Journal and Us Weekly.
Unfortunately for the passionate group of journalists, writers, photographers, and videographers at Bike Mag and the other magazines, American Media’s ownership was short-lived. The furloughs may not be permanent, but signs point that they are.
Many of us found a way to connect to a greater mountain bike community, and absorb some of the industry’s best writing, photography, and journalism through their pages over the years. Bike Mag slowly ratcheted down their publishing frequency over the past few years, going from a monthly publication to a quarterly. According to information published on the AMI website, half of Bike Mag print readers were over the age of 42 in 2017.
Like all magazines today, they have had to transition to a more digital front and Bike Mag appeared to have invested much more time into their video content building a substantial YouTube following. Unfortunately it wasn’t the staff’s call to make.
The mountain bike community received similar news in February when Dirt Rag called it quits after 30 years. The print medium has thinned tremendously in the past decade, so while it’s not unusual anymore to see titles disappearing, it doesn’t make it easier to see the iconic and legendary magazines we all adored fall to changing times or the profit-mandating publishers that oversee them. Best of luck to the staff and contributors at Bike Mag.
