Powder Magazine - Sketchy Lines

KapitolPhoto

KapitolPhoto

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If anyone followed last week's edition of Sketchy Lines and the comments that followed, you'll see that this week's feature is the perfect followup. Truth be told, this kind of stuff is actually getting me excited next year/season's issues.

Way to go Powder Magazine Editorial Team!

Last Week's Sketchy Lines "Inside the Mind of Andy Parry" & Interview
http://www.powdermag.com/features/news/062810-sketchy-lines-a-creepy-love-story/

This Week's Sketchy Lines
http://www.powdermag.com/features/news/070610-sketchy-lines-by-geoff-balkman/
 
I dont know why everyone was so pissed at Andy and jib skiing. But anyway the new one is a great way to adress it. Keep up the good work GBalkman.
 
thanks everyone. Geoff is the man and I'm stoked to have him freelancing for us. All of your comments on powder.com are much appreciated too.
-Rogge
 
What exactly didn't you like about it? I'm curious. I was stoked Amber tried something different and I thought it was refreshing to see something other than your everyday ski interview that are on every ski site around.
 
my thoughts exactly.

People complain when things are run of the mill, but when you try something new people dont like it.

I say keep it up, we need fresh faces and fresh ideas!
 
I see what you're getting at here and I agree with you. The layout was tricky as we wanted to keep the email format.
As for the corrections, Amber isn't a skier. (I know, I know, I know and if you think this is bullshit, please join the club and submit a resume to become our intern: http://www.powdermag.com/interns/).
That's my fault as I should have prefaced the article with that information. Thanks for the feedback. Any further feedback or comments about web, print, social media, etc can always be sent via email to mike@powder.com.
 
I couldn't tell you. She was hired as an intern before I arrived at Powder. Despite not being a skier, she's been a great asset to us in the offices with fact checking, archiving, etc and yes, if you'd like to get a skier back in the intern spot, apply today. We're accepting applications for the Fall and having another NS member in house would be awesome!
 
Hope to God J-lev really said this. He's the fucking man.

Posted Thu Jul 1, 2010, 8:38 PM — By Jason Levinthal

I laughed the whole read. maybe I'm too close to it, or just more entertained by the unexpected or my expectations for Powder are not only to be sophisticated and ultra fine tuned. I enjoy reading DT's and Hansen's deep thoughts as much I do this, or else I'd be bored with only one voice, one view, one image of skiing. Maybe skiing is about doing whatever the fuck you want and people that tell you otherwise are too uptight about being laid back to be skiers in the first place.
 
hahahaha

"You haven't partied until you've rolled 3 consecutive critical hits on a level 15 Ogre Mage."

 
I didn't like the interviews either.
The interview didn't seem to have any focus at all and the questions were uninteresting.
Also one of the issues for me is that this type of article and Powder Mag does not fit. In the business strategy world this is called "straddling." It's when a brand tries to take multiple strategic postures or attempt to brand themselves in conflicting ways. A simple example is if Pabst Blue Ribbon started to sell high-end micro brews under the same name. The crux of the problem is that once a brand has a particular image with its consumers, changing this image can cause consumers to feel an "ingenuousness" about the new change.
I think if Powder wants to do more youthful or new publication formats, such as the interview in question, it needs to do so under a different masthead/name.
 
lol.

Way to explain the comic (second link) in the OP.

070610-sketchy-lines-tug-of-war.jpg


I think they are aware of the extremes in demographics. Thats why they are trying new things to cater to new crowds. Why is this such a problem? Currently freeskiing mags kinda blow, I am all for some fresh ideas. It is easy to track which ideas work and which dont now days, it will all get worked out. relax.

 
Thats great if they want to get new crowds, but my point was that they should not try to cater to everyone and all demographics under one masthead/name. When you have a brand or company that tries to be too many things to too many people then people generally attribute a form of ingeniousness to them.
The problem with "Straddling" is why Toyota makes high end cars under a different name Lexus. Or when skate companies have multiple brands under one ownership. For example, Tumyeto the skate company owns Pig, Foundation, and Toy Machine. Each brand caters to different types of customers, and each are separated by different names.
Or more relevant, this is why K2 does not sell Line skis under the brand "K2." Because both K2 and Line have different customers and a different image, and if they were to be combined it would be unlikely for them to capture both under one name/image.
 
Powder isn't trying to rebrand. We're "The Skier's Magazine" and strive to be all inclusive. Skiing is skiing is skiing.
I think if you had the opportunity to scroll through some of the older magazines, you'd be shocked at the amount of park, urban, etc. I once shared the same sentiments as you about Powder but after having the opportunity to dive in the mag's history, I couldn't be happier and more surprised. And if you're still not convinced, take a look at the articles I've written for this site and Ski The East and know that you'll be seeing similar content in the pages of the mag and our website.
Here's our history page if you're interested: http://www.powdermag.com/the-history-of-powder-magazine/
We ran a cover in 1996 proclaiming "newschool" skiing as the next era of skiing.
Let it be known that I want to continue to bring a professional editorial approach to park, urban, and pipe stories and I'm open to suggestions, criticism, and comments anytime: mike@powder.com
and also, I've gotta take some pics of the huge photos we have in our office. Some of them are sooo sick and it's guys like Skogen, Vinnie Dorion, and JP Auclair going huge at summer camps, X Games, and old school PBP shoots. I'll snap some during my lunch break and put them up on my blog.
Thanks for being honest and opinionated, NS. That's what skiing needs.
 
I'm just happy to see some controversy in the ski industry that has nothing to do with tobacco.

Seriously though, it's nice to see powder bringing bringing in fresh blood like balkman and yourself rogge. I don't really visit their site though, any chance on getting those sketchy lines in the actual mag???
 
Frankly I'm amazed Powder would publish something like that (even if it is only online). The informality and format just does not work. I think its great that Powder is trying to focus more on some of the new generation but it needs to be done right! Not by some intern that has never skied. Pieces like this aren't exactly going to help win over the "old timers", not that we need to but damn, we need to represented better than half-assed email conversations like that. Obviously no disrespect to Andy, he rolled with Amber's inability to scratch the surface...or even find the surface.
 
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