the sad demise of Trail Runner

Rickshaw · Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:32 pm

Trail Runner magazine seemed great a few years ago, and was a nice antidote for the makeup and Penguin Bingham articles that Runner's World had turned into. It seems to have been sliding slowly downhill since then, though. The cover story of the May issue didn't do much to restore my confidence: "Trails vs. Roads: Which Sport Wins?" They also seem to have picked up a new columnist who likes to write about beer and cigarettes a lot-- not exactly what you'd expect to find in a runner's magazine. But the worst part is that the magazine is shrinking. The issue was 63 pages, with tons of full-page photos and ads, and most of the articles in half-columns next to another ad. There are probably only about 8 pages of text in the whole magazine.

Is it just not possible for a running-interest magazine to be commercially successful? With the number of people running and participating in races, I would think there would be lots of interest. Unfortunately, though, most of the running magazines I've seen are turning into brainless ad fodder.