Keeping The Climbing Zine Alive, After Losing Patagonia
Long live the printed zine!
“We’re not sponsoring The Climbing Zine, because we’re only doing digital ads this year,” my contact at Patagonia told me.
This was a setback I’d been anticipating — Patagonia has pulled back from a few different long term sponsorships — but to hear these words directly, from my long term business colleague who represents the almighty Patagonia, felt personal.
by Luke Mehall (TLDR: Subscribe and KTZA)
Patagonia is a big part of the reason that The Climbing Zine exists in the first place. They were the first major sponsor to place advertisements in The Zine, and once we had them on board, it was a big talking point when we were attracting other sponsors.
For perspective, our strategy has always been to use our sponsorship dollars from ads to cover our printing and shipping expenses. The rest of our support comes from our subscribers, and our clothing and sticker lines. In recent years we also added our Dirtbag State of Mind podcast, which also has advertisements, and we have a modest Patreon support network as well.
Many of you reading this may be familiar with our “Keep The Zine Alive” campaign. We started this campaign in the last couple years, as print and shipping prices rocketed, and inflation started to take its toll. We’ve added 725 new subscribers, which has greatly helped offset these costs.
At the heart of “Keep The Zine alive” is that we need to root our business in our readers, just as much as we do in our sponsors.
And every time we highlight this campaign, our readers do show up for us. We’ve also had new sponsors show up for us, and we are grateful for those companies as well.
This next issue, Volume 25 will be the first time in a decade where Patagonia won’t be in there. While it does feel personal, because I feel such a connection and inspiration from Patagonia and the way they do business, I have to remind myself that at the end of the day Patagonia is just that a business, a company with a bottom line, like every other company.
This makes me think about The Climbing Zine as a company. The centerpiece of what we offer is a print publication. Part of why I’ve continued to keep print at the heart of what we do, is how much time we all spend in the digital. I hear it from our readers all the time just how much this publication means to people, and how important it is to sit down, away from a screen and engage with beautiful and very personal writing.
We are going to continue to keep print at the center of what we do. There’s a print resurgence — some might say print is the new vinyl — and we are proud to be OGs in this space.
We also hope that Patagonia will be back with The Zine someday. Like I said, without their support over the years, who knows if we may have made it this far. So, thank you to Patagonia and all the wonderful people we’ve worked with there and will continue to work with.
In the meantime, the loss of this huge sponsor means we need two things: new sponsors and new subscribers.
After shipping costs subscriptions are $45 a year for two zines. We’re offering a special discount link for 25% off for our next 100 subscribers.
Many thanks to everyone who subscribes, and helps spread the word about our very special zine. I love how we are largely a “word of mouth” publication, and that our zine holds a special place on coffee tables, van shelves, and even toilets.
I’ve always been transparent that I’m an artist first, and a business person second. I think that actually makes for a really interesting product. I’m always going to be honest about where we are at, and right now we need your help to keep this dream going.
Thanks for helping “Keep The Zine Alive”.
Subscribe and also get 25% off your first year (discount applied at checkout):
Peace,
Luke Mehall
Publisher, The Climbing Zine
Host, Dirtbag State of Mind podcast
luke@climbingzine.com