Looking for an authentic magazine to drool over that focuses on skiing issues rather than the skiing institution? You can skip such commercialized standbys as Ski, Skiing, Powder, and Freeskier that cater more towards advertisers than readers. Fluff free and mostly subscriber driven, The Ski Journal is an amazingly beautiful production that looks and reads more like an anthology of ski literature and photographs than a typical ski magazine.
Published by the same outfit responsible for Frequency: The Snowboarder’s Journal, The Ski Journal is a new quarterly periodical that shuns typical magazine production techniques on both the front and back end. The magazine is printed on thick high quality paper that brings to life its exceptional photography and beautifully designed layout. Photographs are matched with generally well written articles that range from one page quick shots to double digit page numbered in depth articles without commercial interruption. While The Ski Journal does take advertisers on for revenue, the ads are limited to full pages and generally relegated to either the front or back of the magazine, never breaking up content or articles (sixteen full page ads out of one hundred and twelve pages in Volume Two Number One–compare that to Ski, Skiing, Powder, Freeskier, or even Backcountry).
The amazing layout, stellar content, vivid photography, and lack of advertisements comes at a price. The Ski Journal is largely subscription driven by asking its readership to drive the revenue rather than potentially biasing the magazine through advertising. With a cover price of $12.95 USD/$14.95 CDN and a one year subscription available for $39.99 for four installments, The Ski Journal is not cheap. But you get what you pay for as The Ski Journal is far superior to the fluff of the major ski porn rags.
The content of The Ski Journal is broad in its appeal and scope. Eastern skiers will delight to coverage of our beloved New England peaks. The first two issues featured short articles about such soulful skier’s mountains as Jay Peak and Mad River Glen. Volume Two Number One contains a wide range of topics covering culture (noted Austrian painter Alfons Walde and a Greg Stump “Gallerie”), personality (Shane McConkey on being a family man and a skiing family from Argentina), retrospect (backcountry skiers from 1974), racing (cancellation of the Hahnenkamm), location (Jay Peak, VT, Alta Lake, B.C., and Kashmir), and environmental issues (Arizona). No fluff pieces with no hidden agendas such as promoting locations or products because of advertiser dollars or influence. The Ski Journal keeps it straight forward with quality writing and brilliant photography about issues, locations, and cultural aspects that will be interesting to most skiers more concerned with the activity than its surrounding lifestyle.
In a conglomerate driven media industry within which corporations are more interested in the bottom line than the activities promoted in their periodicals, it is refreshing to see a skier driven and subscriber supported ski magazine. Beyond the home grown appeal, even more refreshing is the quality of content in its words, images, and layout. Check out The Ski Journal at your local bookseller or newsstand.
