Robin Thurston, the multimillionaire mogul of active-lifestyle journalism, sat in his Boulder office one afternoon this past winter and contemplated his emerging empire. It was impossible for him not to feel satisfied. Since purchasing what was then called Pocket Outdoor Media in 2019, Thurston had poured more than $150 million of investment capital into the formerly obscure conglomeration of niche publications and transformed it into what he hopes will become the nation’s most extensive purveyor of outdoor life.
Outside, the renowned magazine Thurston purchased in February 2021, is the crown jewel of the enterprise and the namesake of the now rebranded Outside Inc. Today, the company has grown to more than 500 employees and includes 26 magazine titles (such as Yoga Journal and Backpacker), a book publisher, a GPS app, a fly-fishing film tour, and an event-management business. It’s all part of Thurston’s plan: Bring myriad brands from a single industry under one umbrella, anticipate customer needs, charge a subscription fee for all of it, and significantly de-emphasize the advertising revenue model that has become so challenging for newspapers and magazines over the past decade and a half.
“Do I think I’m doing something revolutionary?”the 49-year-old Outside Inc. CEO and Colorado native says. “You know, it’s not like I’m building a rocket going to the moon.”
Outside Inc. would not confirm how many people
