Outside (magazine)

History

Outside founders were Jann Wenner (the first editor in chief), William Randolph Hearst III (its first managing editor), and Jack Ford (an assistant to founding publisher Donald Welsh and a son of former U.S. President Gerald Ford). Wenner sold Outside to Lawrence J. Burke two years later. Burke merged it into his magazine Mariah (founded in 1976) and after a period of using the name Mariah/Outside kept the Outside name for the merged magazine.

In 2021, Burke sold Outside to Pocket Outdoor Media. In March 2025, 35 journalists signed a letter requesting their names be removed from the magazine’s masthead in protest over recent layoffs and censorship.

Contributors

Christopher Keyes was the editor . John Rasmus, one editor of Outside, launched the career of Jon Krakauer and other freelance travel and adventure writers. Though the magazine has tilted toward a more commercial aesthetic in recent years, it has also recruited figures from the literary world for freelance assignments. Writers whose work has appeared in Outside include Sebastian Junger, Bruce Barcott, Tim Cahill, Daniel Coyle, E. Annie Proulx, naturalist and author David Quammen, and Bob Shacochis. Songwriter David Berkeley also worked for Outside.

References

References

1. (March 7, 2025). "Top 50 magazines in the US: The Atlantic is fastest growing title in second half of 2024". [Press Gazette].
2. (3 March 2015). "List of Top 10 Best Sports Magazines of All time". Sporty Ghost.
3. Dougherty, Philip H.. (6 May 1977). "Advertising: Outside More Moss for Rolling Stone?". [[The New York Times]].
4. Pogrebin, Robin. (October 27, 1997). "Outside Magazine Succeeds by Defying Categories". [[The New York Times]].
5. Vitu, Teya. (2021-02-22). "Santa Fe-based ‘Outside’ magazine sold to Pocket Outdoor Media of Colorado".
6. Watson, Lauren. "Inside Outside".
7. (November 4, 2021). "Outside Magazine Staff". Outside.