The end of Outside

[plus: a call for pitches! and more...]

Sean Winters (Flickr)

For a couple of years in my mid-20s—an era when I dreamed of being a writer but did not know how—I woke up every morning and read two longform magazine stories. It’s part of how I learned this work. Often enough, the stories came from the pages of Outside—and so, naturally, one of my ambitions became to publish my own adventure yarn in that august magazine.

I came close, thanks to this online-only essay about the Bass Pro Shop inside the glass pyramid in downtown Memphis. But when editor-in-chief Alex Heard (himself a Mississippian) left for greener pastures, I sensed the magazine’s glory days were ending. More and more it seemed to be a flimsy little newsstand rag, its online presence bolstered with listicles.

Now that end is all but official: As Adventure Journal reported last week, Outside has laid off 20 editorial and business staff members. (At the same time, Outside Inc., the magazine’s parent company, purchased the travel booking software Inntopia.) A representative of Outside Inc. told Adventure Journal that more print issues are forthcoming, and that the summer issue “will present a redesigned, reimagined Outside which will broaden the lens of the magazine.” But it’s hard to imagine that new magazine being anything but a shell of its former self.

I agree with Adventure Journal’s editor, Stephen Casimiro, that “under the right owner, with a radical reinvention, Outside could have thrived.” Magazines today seem to fall into two classes: those thin rags you find in grocery store check-out aisles, with cheap cover prices and profits built on volume; and then more premium products that cost a good bit more (as much as $30 an issue) and go to fewer readers, but live for a long time on your coffee table or your shelf. The latter approach—what I’m aiming for with Southlands—has its own difficulties; I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to offer the lavish, $2-a-word assignments Outside was famous for. Nonetheless, I think it's the route toward keeping good writing, good storytelling, and deep reporting alive. And that will always be the key, to me. That's why I'm excited to announce that Southlands' contributors' guidelines are now available, and we're officially accepting pitches for our launch issue. If you're a writer with a story to tell about the South's landscapes and the people who love them, I'd love to hear from you.

Until then, to mourn what we’re losing, and to illuminate the kind of work I hope to publish in Southlands, spend your time with some Outside classics. I’ve rounded up a set of Southern-set stories I love below.

—Boyce

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In season

A bald eagle chick in the Everglades / Lori Oberhofner (Creative Commons)

>>> Bald eagles are in currently higher-than-usual numbers here in the South, as their northern territory cools. Garden & Gun supplies a list of sites where you might catch the national bird in action.

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SUBMIT YOUR WORK

I’m now accepting pitches for Issue 1 of Southlands. Check out the guidelines and instructions for submissions here.

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The lowdown

>>> The new, bipartisan EXPLORE Act—co-sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)—could bring funding to public lands, in Arkansas especially.

>>> Assateague Island may allow new kinds of vehicles onto the beach.

>>> Padre Island National Seashore gets criticized for ignoring sea turtles during a recent freeze.

>>> A sprawling Mississippi River ecosystem restoration project near Memphis has the green light from Congress, but still needs funding.

>>> Georgia’s OcMulgee Mounds are not yet approved as a national park.

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The Outside Southern classics

Canoeing near the Yazoo River / John Ruskey for Outside Magazine

Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream: On being Black outdoors. (Latria Graham, September 2020)

The Stranger in the Shelter: The horrifying story of the first murder on the Appalachian Trail, the kidnapping that followed, and how one woman learned to survive. (Earl Swift, November 2018)

Frogpocalypse Now: In South Florida, cane toads are so numerous that they seem to be dropping from the sky. They're overtaking parking lots and backyards, can weigh almost six pounds, and pack enough poison to kill pets. Why the surge? (Ian Frazier, March 2017)

My Dad Tried to Kill Me With an Alligator: The Pearl River is full of trash, Volkswagen-sized catfish, and a heckuva lot of gators. Swimming in it? That was Pop's idea. (Harrison Scott Key, May 2015)

57 Feet and Rising: Defying government orders, three wet-ass pals canoed 300 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg—surfing the crest of the century’s great flood, watching wildlife cope with the rising tide and assessing 75 years of levee building. (W. Hodding Carter, June 2011)

The Tuber: Having constructed the greatest flotation device mankind has ever known, a fearless writer embarks on an ill-conceived, possibly insane crossing of alligator-infested North Florida via a string of seriously imperiled and incredibly beautiful rivers. (Wells Tower, March 2009)

The Thing With Feathers: Is it a bird or a haunting memory? Tracking an uncertain resurrection of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the big woods of Arkansas. (Wells Tower, March 2006)

Remember some classics I missed? Add them in the comments!