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News isn’t often what we do here at Field Mag, but given the legacy of TWSnow and the outsized impact the mag had on this writer's own childhood—and no doubt countless others' too—we're breaking our own norms to share the news as it develops
It's official, TransWorld SNOWboarding magazine is dead. "All good things, unfortunately, must come to an end, and effective March 6, 2019, TransWorld SNOWboarding has closed," states a post on TWSnow.com, "the 32nd volume of the magazine will be our last, and 'Kamakazu' will be our final film." All print and digital operations by the iconic brand have come to a close, though in the coming weeks a few final farewell reflections from filmers, editors, photographers, and riders will be published to the site and social channels.
In the meantime, posts by former editors, current pros, and other industry mainstays are flying up across social media under the hashtags #RIPtransworld and #RIPtwsnow, paying homage to the magazine that for 30+ years largely defined snowboarding.
RIP TransWorld SNOWboarding 1987 - 2019
A spokesperson from American Media Inc, who acquired TWSnow in February, shared a memo with Forbes stating, "Effective immediately, Snowboarder will be the sole snowboarding brand of the new Adventure Sports Network Group, part of American Media’s Active Lifestyle Group. This is a truly an exciting time for Snowboarder as it heads into its thirty-second year with the most diversified, and exciting, content offering in its history."
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American Media's February aquisition of TEN: The Enthusiast Network and the Adventure Sports Network (ASN) included 14 hugely influential action sport and outdoor magazines, including all TransWorld titles, Snowboarder, SURFER, POWDER, and more.
Rumors of an impending sale had floated around the TransWorld offices for months, but to see AMI, publisher of the National Enquirer (you know, the one accused of blackmailing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos over dick picks) and run by outspoken Trump supporter David J. Pecker, was a shock. Almost immediately layoffs started, with some titles losing up to 50% of their staff.
Earlier this week subscribers of TransWorld SNOWboarding, TransWorld Skateboarding, and TransWorld Motocross received a rather callous note in the mail from AMI announcing that the three titles would "no longer be published." While this meant the end of print operations only for the Skate and Motocross mags, it sadly indicated a full shuttering of TWSnow.
As a rather sad consolation, remaining subscriptions will be fulfilled with issues of Men’s Journal (also published by AMI). Some felt the concession only added insult to injury. What's more, in the note sent TransWorld Motocross subscribers, Motocross was spelled Motorcross, only further proving how little AMI cares of the situation.
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Even with the writing on the wall via TWSkate, to see TWSnow follow suit (a magazine rumored to be one of the more profitable of TEN’s properties) is a huge blow to both print media and action sport culture at large, especially for those of us that grew up alongside the magazine.
Personally, TransWorld SNOWboarding was the Bible to me as a kid. From middle school through to my university years its pages taught me everything I felt like I needed to know—who to look up to, what to wear, what tricks to learn, what brands to support, where to travel to. It feels silly to write, but it’s true. With the arrived of each issue I'd sit down in place and read it cover to cover, then repeat the process any number of times until the next one arrived in the mail.
As a teenager, seeing my little local ski hill of Snoqualmie Pass, WA get coverage blew my mind. To later see some of my closest friends get their first photos in the mag made me more proud than I had ever felt. And when I moved to New York nearly a decade ago, then-online editor and now good friend, Hondo, gave me a shot to earn one of my first “real” magazine bylines. It was a dream come true. These days I’m much farther removed from that life, but the many friends I made chasing the dream of an endless winter are still around, even if the very rag that brought us all together isn’t.
Join me in crossing all fingers and toes that POWDER, SURFER, and the other legendary titles now owned by AMI aren't next on the chopping block. And please, if you give a damn about snowboarding, head on over to Snowboarder Mag and click every damn ad in sight. Support longtime editor Pat Bridges and all his team is doing to keep real snowboarding media alive.
*TransWorld has acknoqlegded the outpouring of support on IG and to aid in the memorials has offered up every cover from 1987-2010 in digital form.
Published 03-06-2019
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