Active Interest Media chronicles outdoor industry

BOULDER — One of the largest publishing companies worldwide is quietly headquartered in Boulder. Active Interest Media (AIM) has more than 50 distinctive brands and 500 employees to produce magazines such as Backpacker, Ski and Yoga Journal.

If you haven’t heard of AIM, that’s sort of intentional on the company’s end, said Chief Innovation Officer Jonathan Dorn. 

“We’ve always believed it’s important our individual brands are known,” Dorn said. “The company itself is not necessarily what people are picking up and reading off the newsstand. We like to shine the light on the publications, rather than the corporate entity.”

AIM, through a series of acquisitions over its 15-year history, produces leading consumer and trade events, websites, magazines, films and TV shows, reaching 36 million readers, fans, and attendees in 85 countries. The company’s six divisions — the Equine Network, Home Group, Healthy Living Group, Marine Group, Outdoor Group, and Creative Home Group — also operate thriving business-to-business platforms, online universities and retail events.

AIM was founded in 2003 by Efrem (Skip) Zimbalist and Andrew W. Clurman, who is currently the president and CEO of the company.

“Both of them came out of a media background,” Dorn said. “There was an opportunity to form a media company focused on enthusiasts’ activities and the communities that surround them. The philosophy is to create contents that enables and inspires people who engage in those activities to do it safely, and to develop a life-long hobby or pursuit, and through our brands, to be leaders and contributors in their communities.”

Depending on which numbers one is looking at, AIM is either the largest or second largest enthusiast media company in North America. By number of titles and different brands, AIM comes out on top. In regard to total revenue or audience size, usually Meredith Corporation — which publishes several popular magazines including Family Circle, Sports Illustrated and Time — comes out on top.

In spite of AIM’s overwhelming industry success worldwide, the company still stays true to its local roots and meaningfully engages with the community.

“We have a lot of readers and followers in this area, and meet them in sort of indirect ways,” Dorn said. “We have lots of contributors — writers, photographers, videographers, gear testers. We’re involved in a handful of local events like the Boulder Creek Festival and various races, various equine charity events, Bolder Boulder, Open Space trail work, and consistent engagement on a charity level.”

AIM is a contributor to Attention Homes, an organization that serves homeless and at-risk youth in Boulder County. Backpacker Magazine has been a long-time sponsor of Big City Mountaineers in Golden, which provides under-resourced youth the opportunity to have transformative experiences in the outdoors. 

“We are definitely involved in the region in small and medium ways,” Dorn said. “We tend not to go for big, flashy stuff — more on-the-ground efforts, where we can make a difference one day or one patch of trail at a time.”

From an intangible perspective, Dorn says AIM’s goal is to redefine what a modern media company looks like — meeting the community where it is, not just in print or digital, but also through events, video, and other ways to provide education and inspiration.

“That is sort of our guiding star,” he said.

Last year, 2017, was the most profitable year in AIM’s history. Dorn says the company is anticipating solid growth in 2018 as well. He’s seeing a lot of continued success with AIM’s recently added online education program and certain community events. AIM also gains significant revenue from the Warren Miller Film Tour, which is owns.

“Not that we don’t have challenges,” Dorn said. “There are certainly places that are more challenging than they’ve ever been, but the way we innovate and diversify as a company has led to a lot of success for us.”

From a strategic perspective, AIM wants to be as diversified as possible to help weather the ups and downs of the economy. It’s more and more challenging every day to operate a business that relies solely on advertising or subscription and newsstand revenue, Dorn noted.

“We also want to be of service to people in all the places where they might need information about boats, yoga, whatever. So, diversification is a sort of community facing aspect as well as self-preservation,” Dorn said.

From an industry perspective, Dorn believes in the longevity of the specialized magazine.

“There’s still lots of opportunity where people want to consume magazine style content,” he said. “Just last year, there were more than 800 magazines launched (according to numbers at Mr. Magazine online). People are not giving up on that. You hear a lot about high-profile magazines going out of business, but most of those are giant media outfits that have been replaced by news online; they can’t sustain the advertising base. But magazines in an enthusiast or mission-driven space can be really successful.”

Outdoor trends

Dorn also serves as general manager of AIM’s Outdoor Group, which reaches 8 million passionate enthusiasts a month and includes brands (in addition to those previously mentioned) such as Climbing, SNEWS and National Park Trips.

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He notes some factors showing outdoor enthusiasm on the rise. Dorn said outdoor participation around the country, “no matter what survey you look at,” continues to increase, including National Park visitations.

“It ebbs and flows when looking from category to category, but generally, all ships are rising,” he said.

The exception to the rule is rock climbing, which, according to Dorn, is growing at a faster rate than previously, and faster than relative sports. Dorn said this boom is just in time, as climbing will debut as an Olympic sport in 2020.

Another trend Dorn sees is a lot more attention to sustainability than 10 years ago.

“It’s showing up in a lot of places,” he said. “Like gear companies building sustainable and environmentally friendly products to lower their carbon footprint.”

The biggest news for the outdoor industry was the relocation to Denver of the Outdoor Retailer sports expo and conference — after being held in Salt Lake City for 20 years.

“That doesn’t touch consumers so much but in terms of outdoor industry trends, it was a joyful event,” he said. “It’s recognition that Colorado is a perfect host for that.”

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