To The Future
By Doug Schnitzspahn
I am excited to work with the team at Hed Hi Media to produce The Daily, Outdoor Retailer’s official show daily publication. This means the staff and writers from the award-winning Outdoor Retailer Magazine will bring their collective talents to The Daily. Acquiring The Daily contract also gives Hed Hi the chance to create synergy between multiple media properties with a focus on independent specialty retailers, outdoor manufacturers, and the larger outdoor community that rallies together at the show.
We are excited to craft a new look and feel for The Daily while also keeping true to the publication’s roots. We know have some big shoes to fill. The first show publication was the Outdoor Retailer Daily Exposure, which launched at Summer Market in Reno in 1995 under editor Michael Hodgson and publisher Joan Alvarez from the original Outdoor Retailer Magazine team. According to a story in the first issue, the idea was to “…feature on-the-spot reporting of product launches and news, behind-the-scenes scoops on what’s happening on the show floor, after-show events and entertainment, and show tips.” A lot has changed since then—the show ownership has shifted hands and the official daily publication contract has bounced around a bit, but the publication has endured with that same focus.
We hope to continue in this tradition and also bring a new and exciting spin to the pages you flip through each day at the show. We will be providing the pro reporting on news, gear trends, and advocacy you have come to expect in The Daily, but we will also be greatly increasing the number of live-reported pages each day and amping up the photography and art. We want The Daily to service show exhibitors. It will be a place to recognize innovations and celebrate collaborations as well as a resource for brands to help them reach their most important audience: retail buyers. Meanwhile, Outdoor Retailer Magazine will continue to be a resource for retailers, full of useful information on how to best run a specialty store and best practices on how to navigate the ever-changing retail landscape.
We see The Daily as a reflection of what’s happening each day at the show. Our goal is to put more exhibitors and attendees in the pages. To that end, we’ve added a post-show edition. Digital in format, this issue will cover all happenings on the final day of the show and give us more opportunity to bring you the stories and trends that develop when the entire industry comes together at Outdoor Retailer. We will also have a Pulse booth (51001-UL) set up on the show floor (keeping in line with The Pulse section of Outdoor Retailer Magazine) as an on-the-spot photo booth, where show attendees can connect and engage directly with the staff of The Daily. Come see us in action.
Our Ethos
We hope, too, to bring some independent edge to the show-owned publication. Our team is made up of dedicated freelancers and Hed Hi staffers. Hed Hi is a small independent creative agency based in Charleston, South Carolina, founded by Tim McManus, whose video and photography clients run the gamut from Oracle to Obey Giant. Our roots are in surf, skate, street art, ski bumming, punk rock, and activism—as well as careers in award-winning publishing and media. We see diversity, equity, and inclusion as terms to be acted upon more than simply trumped. We see start-ups and innovators as the life force of the show. Many of us started in the industry at Hooked on the Outdoors magazine, the ultimate, often off-the-rails, independent disruptor in an industry controlled by big publishers—we brought Frank Black to OR and Pennywise to SIA and continued to make an impact while established naysayers told us we didn’t belong at the table.
The Hed Hi home base in Charleston is adorned with a Shepard Fairey mural that features the statement “To the Future.” The ambiguous interpretations of that mural, and the warnings in his art are not lost on us: We know we must march forward but also be careful we don’t march to tightly in step. It’s a reminder that what we do as an agency has to please our clients yet also stay true to our authentic selves. We hope our indie intensity comes through on these pages. We can’t wait to get to work.
You
But the most important people behind The Daily are not us. They are you. You have invested a lot into this show, and we are here to serve your community. We understand that The Daily should be a reflection of you and your brand and that the pages should be filled with the new products you worked for years to bring to market, the people who drive your business ethic, the causes you support. We will strive to keep open communication and listen to what you want in the daily coverage of the show. Tell us.
While Outdoor Retailer is a forum for sales, it has evolved beyond that primary goal into a gathering of people who have made the choice to make a living around the places they love, and ultimately to protect them. The show and the industry are bursting with new diverse faces, new ideas, new ways of interpreting “outdoors”—all still united by a passion to fight for a clean and healthy tomorrow. We hope to represent those voices and passions in these pages. We look forward to navigating into the future with you.
The Daily Editorial Team
We are excited about the team of industry mainstays, pro journalists, and creative free agents we have assembled to create The Daily. Please contact us with questions, comments, and feedback as we move forward.
Editorial Director
Doug Schnitzspahn has worked on the Outdoor Retailer and SIA Show dailies for the past 12 years. He is the editor-in-chief of Elevation Outdoors magazine and the Outdoor Retailer Magazine and newsletter and has covered the outdoors and conservation in publications including Men’s Journal and National Geographic online. His work has been recognized by Best American Essays and with a Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship. Before journalism he spent time down in the conservation trenches working to propose new national monuments with The Wilderness Society and Sierra Club.
Contact:[email protected]
Photo Editor
Andrew Kornylak is the photo editor at Outdoor Retailer Magazine and the director behind the #WeAreOutdoor series, as well as a freelance photographer whose work has graced the covers of many magazines, from Rock & Ice to Garden & Gun. He will be the driving force behind the imagery in The Daily.
Contact:[email protected]
Managing Editor
Helen Olsson will be in charge of content in The Daily and running the newsroom at the show. She is a freelance writer, editor, and the author of The Down & Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids and Ranger Rick Kids’ Guide to Hiking. She has served as editor-in-chief for Epic Life magazine and the Snow Show Daily, as editor-at-large for Aspen Magazine, and as executive editor at Skiing magazine.
Contact:[email protected]
Art Director
John McCauley is the art and photography director for New Mexico magazine and art director for Outdoor Retailer Magazine. He spent 11 years working as art director and marketing art director at Outside and three years as assistant art director at Boston Magazine.
Contact:[email protected]
Gear Editor
Cameron Martindell is the managing editor at Elevation Outdoors magazine and former gear editor at Gear Institute. Reach out to him with questions about products, new exhibitors, product pick submissions, and the event schedule.
Contact:[email protected]
Staff Reporters
Eugene Buchanan is the author of Tales from a Mountain Town, a former reporter for the Denver Business Journal, and 14-year publisher and editor-in-chief of Paddler magazine. He’s also a member of New York’s prestigious Explorer’s Club.
Jenn Fields has worked as the travel and fitness editor at the Denver Post as well as an editor and reporter at the Colorado Daily and Daily Camera.
Emma Murray is a freelance writer for Elevation Outdoors and manages special sections and the adventures section for the Boulder Weekly.
Bevin Wallace runs the blog Real Life Delicious and is the former managing editor at Skiing magazine and editor at Warren Miller’s Snow magazine.
SUBMISSIONS
A big portion of The Daily comes from exhibitors and we have the submission forms you have come to expect from The Daily set up for advertising inquiries, new products, new exhibitors, and events at outdoorretailer.com/TheDaily.