The End of Urban Climber

Urban Climber magazine is no more. After a promising start to the magazine which was founded by the publisher Mark Crowther, the magazine fell on hard times in recent years due to both an increase in digital demand which was felt to be strongly lacking from the magazine and an increase in competition. The magazine which was bought by Skram Media in 2007, was done so by the company which in part with Climbing magazine was said to open up greater opportunity and reach for advertisers.

Just a few years ago Urban Climber magazine which was aimed at younger climbers in particular seemed to be going strong with impressive circulation numbers after just a few years on the circuit, and was reporting good growth, but this soon started to wane and in the beginning of 2012 the magazine saw a large dip in its advertising market-share.

Some have attributed the decline in the magazine to the purchase of both Climber and Urban Climber from Skram Media, by the company Active Interest Media, which appeared to have worked out an agreement with Skram whereby AIM would be responsible for the management of the magazines. Active Interest Media is a fairly large publisher of magazines and casts doubt as to whether the magazine decline was a result of management issues or merely a change in tides regarding the acceptance of climbing magazines by the younger generation in a digital age.

Regardless of the reasons, Urban Climber has shut its doors. For those who are subscribers, there are a couple of options available - either receiving a refund on your subscription or migrating the subscription over to Climbing magazine.