Outside to chop staff, Beta and Peloton cycling print mags

Publishing giant Outside has announced a consolidation of its publishing portfolio on the back of a rapid period of group expansion.

Falling victim in the trimming of the publishing house’s assets will be the print magazines attached to mountain bike magazine Beta, as well as road cycling title Peloton. This consolidation will happen over the next six months and is part of the strategy to prioritise digital media formats.

The publisher is reportedly still committed to occasional special issues, but will drastically reduce print output across the majority of its portfolio. The resource redirection will see the publisher go toe to to with the likes of Discovery (GCN’s owner) with a shift in focus to the production of more video content.

Also part of the shift in how the titles are funded, Outside now has a two-tiered digital subscriptions model, which serves up a handful of perks as well as full access to the group’s titles. Across the publisher’s stable it is said that 800,000 already pay the fees, which range between $49 and $99 annually. The higher spend offers up a range of benefits beyond the publisher’s content that are pitched at the engaged and sport clientele, including free books from the VeloPress publishing arm, plus subscription options to the owned mapping services.

The Denver Business Journal reports that around 85 to 90 staff of the total 580 employed are likely to face redundancy, with three titles to be closed entirely.

“The goal is really to create more immersive, high-quality storytelling,” chief executive Robin Thurston told the business journal last week. “We’ll still have some print. But on a move-forward basis, we’re really trying to move into more high-quality video.”

Outside has notably been on an acquisitive run of late, in recent memory buying cycling titles Pinkbike, CyclingTips and mapping service Trailforks. These additions built on a portfolio which already included VeloNews and trade title Bicycle Retailer.

Outside was formerly known as Pocket Outdoor Media.