The publishing industry has developed a taste for adventure in recent years. From men’s and sports titles to outdoor and travel books, magazines of all descriptions are pumping up their adrenaline quotients with articles on extreme sports and ever-more exotic vacation spots.
    For one magazine, however, adventure doesn’t just mean jumping off something high or backpacking to somewhere dangerous. 
   Covering pursuits from sand-surfing in the Sahara to trapeze acrobatics, Blue bills itself as the only magazine devoted to the "adventure lifestyle."
     "We never use the word ‘vacation’ in our magazine because it’s not about going on a vacation for one week a year," says Blue founding publisher Amy Schrier. "It’s about a lifestyle--the adventure lifestyle."
     Though it's been around since 1997, Blue was for a long time easy to miss, with an initial circulation of only 100,000 copies and, at the beginning, no cover lines to help it stand out at the newsstand.
    But the title has been gaining visibility of late. Circulation is up to 175,000, and the magazine has recently been accepted for membership in the Audit Bureau of Circulations. 
    Advertisers, too, are getting to know Blue; the magazine’s ad revenues have increased 100 percent per year since it launched.
    "Just reaching our third year anniversary, in an industry where 1,000 new magazines start every year and 90 percent of them go out of business in the first year, is an accomplishment," says Schrier. "In a sense, every issue is a benchmark"
    That’s especially so in a hotly competitive market that has seen a rash of new titles for adventuresome 20-somethings in recent years, including Ziff-Davis’ Expedia Travels, Travelocity magazine, Trips magazine and National Geographic Adventure.
     Competition also comes from more traditional travel magazines including Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler and Travel Holiday, from outdoor sports books such as Outdoor and Backpacker, and even from young men’s magazines, which regularly make extreme sports and travel part of their editorial mix. 
   Wenner Media’s Men’s Journal, in particular, is expected to move back toward its roots as an outdoor adventure title for men under new editor Sid Evans.
   This abundance can lead to considerable confusion on the newsstand, says Schrier.
    "We get put everywhere on newsstands," she says. "We get included in the adventure, outdoor sports, and travel categories, but we also get put in the lifestyle, men’s and women’s sections."
    It didn’t help that the first few issues of the magazine had no cover text other than the name to guide readers or newsstand owners. The idea was to let the cover art speak for itself, but the experiment was a failure, and cover lines were soon added.
    Schrier compares the emergence of the adventure lifestyle over the last few years to the rise of the technology subculture in the early Nineties that provided the inspiration for Wired.
    As in that instance, it’s a crowd with considerable appeal for advertisers: young, wealthy and, despite their eco-friendly ideals, ready consumers.
    Blue’s median reader is 31, with 75 percent of readers falling between the ages of 25 and 39. Median household income for this audience is $88,800, according to Schrier. That puts it above competitors including Outside, at $66,921, and Conde Nast Traveler, at $80,512, according to MRI.
     Blue’s readers also pour big bucks into their adventurous escapades. The average reader spends $5,000 annually on travel and $3,500 a year on outdoor/action sports gear, according to the company.
      Printed on recycled paper for its environmentally aware readership, Blue comes out six times a year. Advertisers include Prada, Jeep, Dom Perignon, Altoids and Sony.

-Jennifer Cox is a staff writer for Media Life.

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