Thursday May 15, 2003 at 1:11 PM
What's Inside Outside Magazine?
Appearing in The Environment
Today I sent the following to the editors of Outside magazine.
I recently allowed my subscription to lapse although it wasn?t until I was leafing through your May 2003 issue at my local library that I realized why. My growing frustration and dissatisfaction with your publication does not stem from your articles or photographs, clearly you feature some of the best writers and photographers working today, rather my concerns are related to the real customers of your publication, namely your advertisers.
In the 140 pages that made up the May 2003 issue, fully 29 of them were devoted to advertisements for cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, tires. That is over 20% of the magazine — not 20% of the advertising pages, 20% of the whole thing. In addition, the two most prominent areas, the inside front cover and the back cover were both filled with car and truck ads as were 8 of the first 10 pages.
There are few who can argue that the American addiction to private transportation, oil consumption, and ever-larger vehicles is one of the most serious environmental, health, and national security issues of our time. It is clearly an issue which a magazine such as yours should be dealing with and I can’t help but doubt your editorial integrity on the issue when 25% of your revenues are likely coming from the very corporations most responsible for the crisis we now face in this area.
While I understand that Outside is a business, your editorial stance also clearly places you as an advocate for the responsible use and preservation of our environment. As such, do you not also have a duty to prevent yourself from functioning as a vehicle for the marketing message of the automobile industry?
With even nature magazines sport photos of a Hummer driving across the tundra and a Pathfinder taking on Everest, it seems unlikely that the destructive impact of oil, roads, and private transportation is going to be mitigated anytime soon.
Comments
You go Bob!
Gotta run... I think I left the hummer running in the driveway!
Posted by: Jim on Thu May 15, 03
I can't give up my SUV right now because of the kid-seat space issue, but I'll stop reading Outside until the kids are old enough to fit in a hybrid.
Posted by: Steve Jungmann on Thu May 15, 03
I'm not exactly sure that having kids requires owning an SUV. Seems like a lot of people get by with a station wagon and even a few brave souls with min-vans, both of which get better mileage and are held to higher emission standards than SUVs. However, being the total hypocrite, I still drive my ten year old Explorer Sport. I'm starting to investigate other options however and was quite impressed with the new Volvo XC90 -- "the first SUV with a conscience." It still seems a little bigger than necessary for two kids but it meets 2004 emission standards and is 85% recycleable. As importantly, it doesn't up the ante in the highway arms race, needlessly placing at risk the safety of people in other cars.
Posted by: Bob Baxley on Thu May 15, 03
You can't get chicks in a Volvo. That's confirmed in the cinematic masterpiece "Crazy People". I can't make a more powerful argument than that. :-)
Posted by: Steve Jungmann on Thu May 15, 03