A press release issued June 1 stated that Skram Media LLC has sold Climbing Magazine and Urban Climber Magazine to Active Interest Media. Dougald MacDonald will serve as editorial director for both publications, which are moving into new offices in Boulder, Colorado, by the end of June.
Skram Media LLC, owners of Climbing Magazine and Urban Climber Magazine, have finalized a deal in which Active Interest Media (AIM) will take control of the publications and put Dougald MacDonald at the editorial helm. The news was announced earlier today on snewsnet.com in a press release by Michael Hodgson.
The release stated that AIM intends to fold Climbing‘s and Urban Climber‘s print and online offerings into AIM’s relatively new Outdoor Group, which includes Backpacker, SNEWS, National Parks Interactive and Peaks. Urban Climber‘s editorial offices will move from New York to Boulder, Colorado, by the end of this month. Climbing, already based in Boulder, will move across town to the same AIM Outdoor Group offices.
While Mark Crowther will continue as publisher of the two titles from New York, he will report to Kent Ebersole, group publisher of AIM Outdoor Group. Dougald MacDonald–news editor for climbing.com, associate editor for the American Alpine Journal and former publisher and editor-in-chief of Rock + Ice–will become the editorial director for AIM’s climbing titles and editor-in-chief of Climbing.
The sale comes on the heels of an editorial jumble at Climbing, the result of Editor-in-Chief Matt Samet recently parting ways with the magazine. Jeff Achey, longtime staff member of Climbing and currently its interim editor, will stay on as features editor beginning in August.
The release did not mention acquisition of Mountain Gazette, another Skram Media publication.
For a detailed account of the histories of Climbing and Urban Climber, see the January 8, 2007 and March 1, 2007 NewsWires.