Outdoor Life Goes Real Time

The offices of Outdoor Life magazine stand in the heart of Manhattan, but the heart of Outdoor Life is in the wilds of America. "At times it's hard being an outdoor editor in New York, simply because so few people in New York City understand the hunting and fishing culture," says Editor-in-Chief Todd Smith. "Fortunately, I am able to travel to those places where great hunting and fishing are a way of life. On the plus side, New York is certainly the publishing capitol in the United States and having a presence here is hugely beneficial to our business." Plus the design and production talent and best marketing and sales people are in New York, Smith says, so the advantages outweigh any down sides.
 
Outdoor Life has a long history - the magazine was founded in 1898 by J.A. McGuire, who wanted a magazine about sportsmen and all areas of the outdoors. The circulation is currently 750,000 and readers are hardcore hunters and fisherman. "For more than 100 years the magazine has published the best in hunting and fishing adventure," Smith says. Outdoor Life has also had its share of prominent contributors, including author Ernest Hemingway and environmentalist Aldo Leopold.
 
Despite its age, Outdoor Life is anything but old in its thinking. Two recent projects combine a range of technologies to give readers a real-time hunting experience that includes video, web and printed magazine elements. The first, Live Hunt, was born out of a conversation Smith had with one of his contributors, photographer Mark Seacat. In trying to think of a good way to cover a story Seacat pitched, a new concept was born.
 
"Somewhere along the way we came upon the idea of trying to cover Mark's entire hunting season in real time, using computer uploads and satellite phone technology to upload posts direct from the field, literally as they happened," Smith says. "I pitched the idea to our Marketing Director, Liz Burnham, who loved it. Within two weeks we had a program built and several sponsors on board."
 
In January 2010, at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, Outdoor Life rolled out an entire new landing page for Live Hunt with a video player, photo gallery player, blog capability and a Q&A page. "Our sponsors loved it and we were able to sign many of them on right on the spot," says Smith. "In 2009 we made about USD 30,000 from Live Hunt and in 2010 we expect to make USD 150,000."
 
Live Hunt proved so successful that Outdoor Life launched a second program - Record Quest. The difference with Record Quest is that it is a year-long program that is also supported by editorial material in editor Andrew McKean's Hunting section every issue. "So, in the magazine readers get all sorts of tips and information that they can apply to their own hunting season, while over on the online side, they can follow Andrew and the rest of our editorial team on all of our deer hunts this fall," says Smith.
 
So far, readers love Live Hunt and Record Quest, Smith says, and both of the programs continue to grow. A dozen clips have been shot for Live Hunt. "We have set these aside in an archive and will post these on those days when Mark Seacat, our host, is off the grid and can't get us any content," says Smith. "Mark also supplies a minimum of one video clip per week from the field." For Record Quest, they will shoot about 25 clips for the archive, with host McKean sending weekly video clips. The clips are typically three to four minutes. A separate one-minute version is provided to the Outdoor Channel via a partnership agreement and plays on their site. "It's a huge traffic driver for us as their viewers all come back to our site for more content," says Smith.
 
The biggest challenge is keeping a steady flow of content up, according to Smith. "Sometimes our hosts are hunting in very remote places, which can make satellite uploads impossible, but we always find a way to have fresh content up," he says. "Once, when Mark was in the Northwest Territories, we were able to have him phone in a report from the field that we ran some still photos behind. You learn to get real creative, real fast." And there are some big differences in providing video versus text and photos. "Working video into your content mix takes time. Unless you've really planned carefully, it can get to be a real challenge because you can't turn video around as quickly as you can words and photos."
 
Smith is proud of his team: Liz Burnham in marketing, Gregg Gatto in sales and Doug Parker doing the online design along with a development team from Bonnier Corp. in Florida, with Smith himself leading on the editorial side. "No one could have done this alone," he says. "It took a lot of hard work but it's been super successful."
 
Smith also gives credit to the company editing the films, Warren Miller Entertainment, a fellow company within Bonnier Corporation. "Editing video and really doing it right is a very specialized skill," he says. And there are some big differences in providing video versus text and photos. "Working video into your content mix takes time. Unless you've really planned carefully, it can get to be a real challenge because you can't turn video around as quickly as you can words and photos."