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RIP: Skiing Magazine & On the Snow Gear Reviews

Philpug

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There will be less options to check out this coming season for ski reviews. We have been told Skiing Magazine will be no longer, but its sister company SKI will carry on, and Vail-owned Mountain News' On the Snow, Epicski's parent organization, will no longer do their gear reviews but will solely concentrate on Resort and Travel content.
 

Jim McDonald

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…and in other news Gereralissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
 

DanoT

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All the more reason that PugSki should continue to be the go to site for "What ski (all ski gear) should I buy".
 

James

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Wow. Well it's not that surprising I guess. I wonder if they'll start putting out the December issue in September. Oh wait, they're almost there now.

It's been a few years since I even bothered with their reviews.
 

Brian Finch

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Sad & vicious cycle...... everyone wants content for free, skiing, ski racing, Telemark Tips, snow country, Epic/ On the Snow perish.... & the collective ski IQ plummets. Tell me you don't see it? When did you last meet an educated consumer & even a shop rat / rep that knew their line?
 

Tom K.

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Sad, because I wish the entire ski industry nothing but success.

But between pugski, Real Skier, yellowgentian, Ski, Powder, Freeskier and Blister reviews, I think any consumer that wants to read up on skis can find enough information, both "out on the web" and in print.

In the Department of Criticality, I have to say the On the Snow video reviews were goofy, sometimes to the extent of showing a review of a powder ski with slopes nearly devoid of new snow in the background.
 

Ecimmortal

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Honestly can't take magazine reviews seriously when half of their "reviewers" are sponsored athletes.
 

ScotsSkier

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Honestly can't take magazine reviews seriously when half of their "reviewers" are sponsored athletes........and the acting of the ski is in direct proportion to the advertising spend with that publication.

FIFY! I suspect that advertising budgets are more than a small part of this. hard to push the ski industry for $$ if you then dont give that brand a good rating. And if you look carefully so many of the reviews in the past tried to tread a fine line "there are no bad skis" "we are just splitting hairs picking the winner" etc, that the reviews became worthless
 

Ecimmortal

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FIFY! I suspect that advertising budgets are more than a small part of this. hard to push the ski industry for $$ if you then dont give that brand a good rating. And if you look carefully so many of the reviews in the past tried to tread a fine line "there are no bad skis" "we are just splitting hairs picking the winner" etc, that the reviews became worthless

Well, did not want to even bring that part up. You can always tell who has substantially upped their ad budget, or who just got an injection of funding, when all of a sudden every magazine has 3 of their skis as top models.
 

crgildart

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I like seeing what the actual vendor had to say about what and who the product was designed for. Mostly though I just like looking at the photos in ski mags and the banter of the "my decision was better than your decision" back and forth on ski forum reviews.

At the end of the day, the fact these mediums are dying is a sign that the online sellers (and brick and mortar on a smaller scale) are getting their product info out without them.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Philpug

Philpug

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We had a situation with a manufacturer that while they liked what we said about the product it was not their corporate line and inconsistant to what they wanted to say. I explained we will give our own opinion and while we can shair your line as we see fit, we would prefer not to regurgitate rhetoric. Not those exact words but along those lines.
 

James

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Well you see the rhetoric when those people at the show talk. Honestly it's barely worth listening to them. If we did, we'd have to say we were all handicapped and barely able to manage without their new technology. Not sure they realize it applies to their own models.

I thought Dps was somewhat refreshing.
 
Last edited:

Paul Lutes

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Sad & vicious cycle...... everyone wants content for free, skiing, ski racing, Telemark Tips, snow country, Epic/ On the Snow perish.... & the collective ski IQ plummets. Tell me you don't see it? When did you last meet an educated consumer & even a shop rat / rep that knew their line?

While not without some inconvenience, as an avowed elitist I lean towards this being a good thing so far: those of us with the patience and experience to tune out the rabble's white noise are enjoying a golden age of gear, and can recognize the quality that exists, while benignly smiling at the hype, lowest common denominator sales pressure and blissfully ignorant consumers that are still pleasant to sit with on the chair. Life is good, because I've got Sirius, Pandora, etc. in my car for the occasional instance of unavoidably having to deal with the masses getting to and from ...
 

Monique

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