UPDATE: Keep The Zine Alive reached 500 in 2023.
Last year around this time I wrote a short post called “Keep The Zine Alive”. We had lost a couple sponsors, print costs were soaring, and I was wondering how we would sustain The Climbing Zine through the year.
The response to that post was beyond comforting. We added many new subscribers, and others picked up bundles of zines, books, and merch. You, our dear readers “kept the zine alive” last year. Later that spring that it was announced that Rock and Ice and Climbing were done with print.
That left us and the Alpinist as the only major players in the United States doing print media for climbing; despite the fact that climbing itself is growing in astronomical ways. Continuing to publish The Zine in print is not just about business, it’s about keeping culture alive!
Here we are again needing to “keep the zine alive”. In 2023, due to the economy, many companies are cutting or adjusting their advertising budgets, and thus The Zine and our Dirtbag State of Mind podcasts are getting hit. This plus print and shipping costs are still rising. Again, my best option is to reach out directly to you, our dear readers, and communicate where we are at. To sustain The Climbing Zine we need to add more subscribers, and continue moving zine bundles, books, and merch.
Last year we also got some insight from our friends at the Mountain Gazette, another fine print publication, and we are now able to offer recurring subscriptions, so we don’t have to bug you every year or two to renew. And, of course, our Dirtbag Treatment option still stands, the best way for a traveling climber to continue to get their subscription without interruption.
Here are the links to help:
Subscribe: https://shop.climbingzine.com/collections/subscriptions/products/one-year-subscription-2-issues
For current subscribers on the old plan, you can upgrade: https://climbingzine.com/new-option-for-our-current-subscribers-to-support-the-zine-get-hooked-up/
Score some bundles, books, stickers, and merch: https://shop.climbingzine.com/
Support the Dirtbag State of Mind podast on Patreon
Goals for 2024: reach 2,000 new subscribers (we are at 500 as of 1/1/24)
Grow our Patreon to $1k per month.
Thank you kindly,
Luke Mehall
Publisher, The Climbing Zine
