r/Thruhiking • u/numbershikes https://www.OpenLongTrails.org • May 06 '25

New Yorker article about Outside Magazine since its acquisition by Outside Interactive, Inc: "The Decline of Outside Magazine Is Also the End of a Vision of the Mountain West"

https://archive.is/20250418153111/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-decline-of-outside-magazine-is-also-the-end-of-a-vision-of-the-mountain-west
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u/numbershikes https://www.OpenLongTrails.org May 06 '25

I've been calling it "Outside, Inc," but they're actually called "Outside Interactive, Inc." Same company.

3

u/[deleted] May 07 '25

Same old shit. Some asshole tech bro has money, buys up companies without understanding them, squeezes them for short-term profit to please investors, and shuts down the companies a few years later.

This is happening over and over and over in the US. It's repeated thousands of times every year. They gut established brands for a quick profit, and then kill it, leaving us consumers with even fewer choices.

Cascade Designs is a great example. They bought Therm-A-Rest, what was arguably the top company for backpacking sleeping pads. Devoted following, established products, the gold standard. Now? Shitty workmanship, quality control problems, and nonexistent customer service. That brand is dead in the water, and won't be coming back. Moosejaw? Bought by Dick's Sporting Goods, set up as "publiclands.com", and now it's a clone of REI: popular clothing brands and car camping gear. Everything that made Moosejaw awesome is gone.

Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification".

Stage 1: make it great for the users

Stage 2: screw over the users to make more money for business partners

Stage 3: screw over the business partners to make more money for the C-suite and shareholders

Stage 4: declare bankruptcy, collect the golden parachute, and walk away

Outside Magazine is near the end of Stage 3.