Jonathan Dorn

June 24, 2009

Member Q&A

After winning three National Magazine Awards this year, the editor of Backpacker explains how he keeps his magazine on the right trail

Is there any way to explain the allure of hiking to someone who thinks walking to the subway is a workout? When I was a vegetarian, I craved big, greasy double-bacon cheeseburgers. It represented everything I wasn’t getting in my diet—fat, salt, texture, flavor. Hiking is a cheeseburger to the subway’s tofu. Out on the trail, you get fresh air, quiet, leafy scenery, physical and mental space—the polar opposite of the city experience. But it’s more than mere escape; it’s also an opportunity to reengage with nature in a way you haven’t since you were a kid.

How often do you hit the trails yourself? Weekly. My whole staff is constantly testing gear, mapping trips and shooting video. I’m off to Alaska for a two-week trip in mid-July. We’re taking a bush plane into a mountain range that might see only two or three parties a year.

You’ve been at Backpacker since 1997. How’d you get there? Coming out of college, I went straight to grad school at Harvard and got a Ph.D. in American studies. It took me two years of working in academia afterwards (and freelancing on the side) to decide that teaching college history was a bit too musty. Backpacker  was one of the magazines I was writing for, and they offered me a job as an assistant equipment editor making $27,000. My wife had just given birth, so it was tight, but I traveled to three different countries that first year. The salary may have been tiny, but the perks were huge.

Perks like the hikes you included in last October’s “Survival Issue”? How does hiking through the desert carrying a 38-pound pack compare with competing in the National Magazine Awards? Several years ago, I competed in an eight-day adventure race in the Utah desert with temperatures that reached 105°F. We traveled 450 miles on foot and mountain bike, and several racers were helicoptered off the course with heat stroke. That experience was a lot less nerve-wracking than waiting for the NMA nominations to come out. We’ve had some good success at the NMAs in the last few years, but it’s still daunting to realize that Backpacker is going up against the likes of The New Yorker and Texas Monthly and The Atlantic.

You won the Ellie for Essays this year for a piece that centered on childhood sexual abuse. What’s that doing in a magazine like Backpacker? We received more reader mail about “The Source of All Things” than we have for any story in my time at Backpacker. Many of the letters questioned its inclusion in the magazine but far more applauded the courage and eloquence of Tracy Ross, our senior editor who wrote the story. She also received dozens of letters and calls from readers who shared their own stories of abuse. That response confirmed two assumptions I made when I decided to run the story: One, we had an incredibly powerful feature that could help people; and two, our readers expect us to deliver more than just gear reviews and trip reports. I think the idea that niche magazines like ours should stick to service edit and not do ambitious narrative is antiquated. Runners’ World, Bicycling and a few other titles like ours have been running amazing features that touch on the intersection between our sports and bigger cultural issues like race, religion and crime. It’s critical to find the right balance, of course, and to pick the topics carefully. In the case of “The Source,” the clincher was that Tracy’s abuse started in the outdoors, on a camping trip, and that her strength and healing came as she discovered backpacking and reconnected with nature in a new way.

How do you top something like that? You don’t. I’m considering retirement.

The Backpacker website won a couple of awards this year too. How do you make both platforms work for the Backpacker reader? Our entire staff is involved on both sides of the fence—in fact, the fence is now only four inches high. And this group does two things extraordinarily well. First, they conduct constant reader research—and pay attention to it. Second, they’re like beavers in a pond—they’re genetically predisposed to chewing on trees. In this day and age, with online media, the sound of water trickling over the dam is constantly there, and the way we please our readers and users is to stay a couple steps ahead. The best examples are the GPS downloads we introduced several years ago, before most people knew what that meant, and the 3D Google Earth movies we started creating last year, shortly after Google made that technique possible. You can now go to Backpacker.com and “fly” over a hiking route in 3D, previewing the trail, the steep parts, even the campsites. This flyover from Yosemite is pretty revolutionary when it comes to providing destination service: http://www.backpacker.com/3d_flyover_yosemite_north_rim/videos/84.

Speaking of the Backpacker reader, what do they do when they’re not hiking? If they’re not mountain biking, skiing or running, they’re probably drinking a good IPA while they plan their next adventure.

Just one more question about the National Magazine Awards. Last year you won General Excellence. That makes four awards, including two General Excellence awards, in just two years. Any advice for would-be award winners? It looks like the Colorado Rockies need some help too. The Rockies turned it around when they fired Clint Hurdle, the manager. They went from 10 games below .500 to winning 18 out of 20. So they don’t need my advice. And I’m not sure I want to suggest that model for publishing. But morale is key. It may not sound very imaginative, but our success is all about research, good hiring and morale.

You were recently named editorial director of the Western Outdoor Living Group at Active Interest Media. So one of your new titles is American Cowboy magazine. Any plans to get them cowboys to climb down off their horses and pick up a backpack? No, but maybe the other way around. Riding horses into the backcountry is a sweet way to travel. And I’m trying to learn my way around the cowboy universe. Next weekend, I’m headed to the Greeley Stampede to watch bull riding and a Fourth of July concert with Kid Rock. It’s a different world, for sure. I guess I’m going for dual citizenship.