✳️ Rediscovering Ultrarunning Magazine
The task ahead for Jamil
Hey pals,
Writing from the road today so I’ll keep this short. Jamil’s acquisition of UltraRunning magazine has got the interwebs bubbling and quiet frankly it’s a good thing!
Hope you had a great weekend!
Matt
The news this week that Steep Life Media, a company set up by Jamil Coury of Aravaipa Running, has acquired Ultrarunning Magazine is likely the first time that the ultrarunning community has greeted an acquisition positively.
Despite being stung by the Outside acquisition of Trailrunner and Ironman - UTMB partnership, the comments across social media and even Reddit were optimistic, hopeful of a new dawn for Ultrarunning magazine.
Through Jamil’s documented contributions to the sport, it’s livestreams and work across some of the US’ most storied races, Jamil has become one of the sports most trusted figureheads. To new ultramarathoners his YouTube videos are often quoted as their first exposure to the sport.
Yet this acquisition marks his first step into written media at a time when the broader Ultrarunning media ecosystem has evolved beyond what Ultrarunning magazine currently offers.
Ultrarunning magazine has been a staple of the US Ultrarunning scene for over 40 years. Starting out as a print publication before moving online too, the magazine has battled to stay at the centre of the culture, documenting the race scene and culture. With little competition there was no reason to change its subscription-based business; as the number of ultra runners grow, so too did its subscription base. Yet now that attention is distributed across several mediums, where races are covered pre-during-post in podcast, video and written word, their position and relevance has lagged as the culture moves on. If their advertising page is anything to go by, Ultrarunning magazine’s subscriptions grew from 6200 in 2016 to 8000 in 2020, but have now started to drop to 7500.
On that same ‘advertise with us’ page Ultrarunning magazine have maintained a paragraph that mentions that they have less advertising than most other publications. Whilst that may look nice to advertisers and readers, when your subscription base is dropping and your print margins are declining from rising paper costs, that’s not a sustainable business strategy.
For Jamil and Ultrarunning Magazine it’s time to look-inward and rediscover the publication’s value in the marketplace.
That starts with having a perspective on the sport. Their current positioning worked when there were few competitors, but now every podcaster, publication and blog is ‘for the sport’ or ‘for the culture’, UltraRunning’s point of view feels lost.
This is part why our media ecosystem is shifting towards a personality-led brands, voices that you can side with, that offer something fresh. They might be talking to same runners, talking about the same events, but they add their own unique spin.
To some degree this is about trying new formats, hiring different voices, picking something to stand up for. Ultimately it’s about answering the question of 'why do we exist?'
Like all publications, they need to zero in on what makes them distinctive and pursue it relentlessly. Once they’ve found that North Star, it’s then time to get into the weeds of the business model (considering Jamil’s background, my bet is on a focus on events).
In my head, I see a future where Ultrarunning Magazine has a similar position in the sport to what Surfer’s Journal has in surfing. A pillar to the culture, a standard bearer for its values and history, packaged in a stylish rarified magazine that outdoor retailers proudly display on their shelves. That’s the dream (I’m sure it’s every outdoor print publications dream), but they have the ingredients to get there. I have no doubt that Jamil and Amy Clark can pull it off.
I started reading UltraRunning mag in the late 1990s, and I wrote my first article for it in 2003. I continued to write features off and on for the magazine for the past two decades and have a column in it that's nearly a decade old. You're right, its prior principle reason for being—posting results and race reports—has been eclipsed and rendered unnecessary by the nearly immediate results and numerous personal reports available through a bunch of platforms. I think it's useful to define UR by what it should *not* be: I don't think it should be mainly service-oriented and beginner-oriented like TrailRunner/Outside. I also don't think it should try too hard to be hip and trendy or whatever seems appealing right now. When I think of UtraRunning mag, the words that come to mind are "core," "old school," "authentic," "thoughtful"—and I hope Jamil and the team strive to keep those characteristics. As the success of UK's Like the Wind and also Substack (primarily a platform for readers/writers, with a reader-friendly interface) have shown, lots of readers want quality long-form articles to read. That's why I'd like to see UR keep up special, compelling feature writing by authors like John Trent, and columns by ultrarunners and coaches of note. Mainly, I think UltraRunning mag can continue to have a foothold in the sport's media by fortifying its identity as the publication "in the know" and most wise and authentic, showing long-term perspective and knowledge of the sport. Maybe many of its writers will be more gray-haired and wizened than Steep Life Media's younger livestream crew, but I think can be an asset.
With the expanding race roster Aravaipa is building and buying, it seems inevitable that their list of competitors will only grow.
I hope that conflict of interest never shapes what events are chosen to be featured, highlighted or have their results published in the magazine.
Partnerships and sponsorships now also tie closely between the sport and just one brand. If there is any fallout between someone and Aravaipa, will their ability to market their product be significantly diminished?
I hope people are able to hold their friends to a standard they would hold anyone else.
My concerns aren't about Jamil specifically, just the power dynamic this situation innately creates.