BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Outside Inc., the parent company of BRAIN, VeloNews, Pinkbike, Cyclingtips and other cycling-related titles and events, announced a round of staff layoffs Wednesday.
"Rising prices, higher interest rates, and continued supply chain disruptions are creating unprecedented pressures that are being felt in every household and company. While we are hitting our revised membership goals, the slowdown in consumer spending has affected our events and cut into the double-digit growth in ad sales we enjoyed in the first three quarters of the year," CEO Robin Thurston wrote in a letter to staff that was posted publicly on Medium.com.
Thurston said Outside received a new round of funding recently, but a slowdown in advertising led to the cuts.
"In order to achieve profitability by Q3 2023 — and offset these revenue and cost pressures — we must manage our costs more tightly," he wrote.
The staff cuts affected 12% of the company's workforce, including editors at VeloNews and CyclingTips. BRAIN's editorial and sales staff was unaffected.
BRAIN became part of the company in 2019 when it was acquired by Pocket Outdoor Media, the publisher of VeloNews and VeloPress. Prior to that, BRAIN was owned by Emerald Expositions and operated under license by the National Bicycle Dealers Assocation. In February 2021, Pocket acquired Outside magazine and the full company was rebranded as Outside; it acquired Peloton magazine at the same time. In July that year the company acquired Pinkbike and CyclingTips.
Outside cut about 15% of its staff in May 2021.
The latest cuts come as several companies across the bike industry and the media and tech industries make staff cuts. "Numerous high-profile media and tech companies are forecasting advertising decline, and we’ve all witnessed significant layoffs in our industry in recent weeks," Thurston said.
Outside is continuing to move forward with its model of combining advertising sales revenue with paid memberships. It has re-configured its Outside+ membership program in recent months, offering monthly and annual memberships that give members access to multiple online titles, Outside's print magazine, premium access to mapping apps including Gaia and Trailforks, videos, and discounts at events and services including AtheleteReg and BikeReg.
