American Media Inc. Shutters TransWorld SNOWboarding Magazine

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."

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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Before www.anything, Transworld, aka @twsnow was the internet of snowboarding. For a shred-hungry kid in Vermont, this magazine transported me across the world, to places I could never imagine seeing in person, let alone snowboarding. I’d stare at the iconic imagery, disceting each tweak, article of clothing and location for a scent of what riding could hold outside the Green Mountain state. I went on to write for every volume of Transworld from 2000 until the current, and last, often times contributing a feature or two a year. I wrote about anything snowboard related, from touring Greece’s unlikely peaks, to early coverage of climate change impacting snow sports, and the epic Snow Craft trilogy. I covered weed culture, the “safe jump” controversy, and lift ticket pricing— three of the most complex, challenging and satisfying topical features I’ve written for any publication. A huge thanks to Kurt Hoy, @anniefast, @jensherowski ,the late and dearly missed @gerhardmg , @taylormboyd and everyone else I worked with at TWS. I wouldn’t be the writer I am without you having given me a chance, pushed me, and published me. ... This watershed is of course a duality of gratitude and grief. Since the internet started to chisel the bottom out of the print industry, I’ve become increasingly unhappy about clicks and algorithms driving “content creation.” I’d be a hypocrite to say I’m an objective commentator, since I’ve gone on to write a paid online content, and branched out into online video production. But as a snowboarder, a writer, and lover of tangible things, I can’t help but be upset by yet another loss of ink on paper, this time an iconic 30-plus year publication. I don’t have an answer to the question that the internet poses us all, let alone the mental resources at the moment to tackle it. ... So I’ll leave it up to the next generation— what medium will you allow snowboarding to be represented, celebrated and archived with? . . . #printisnotdead #filmphotography #snowboarding #media #magazine #featurewriting #writing #journalism #travel #travelwriter

A post shared by Jesse Huffman (@manhuff) on Mar 5, 2019 at 5:42pm PST

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.