This print magazine is thriving by treating itself like a collector’s item

This post is auto-generated from a public YouTube interview for personal study notes. It is not an endorsement. The transcript is machine-derived and may contain errors; refer to the original video for accuracy.

About this video

When Mike Rogge purchased Mountain Gazette in early 2020, he wasn’t acquiring a thriving media business.

For $5,000 and the cost of a couple beers, he bought a dormant outdoor magazine brand whose main assets consisted of a URL, a trademark, decades of archives, and boxes of old issues sitting in storage.

But Rogge believed the magazine’s legacy — which included contributions from writers like Hunter S. Thompson and Edward Abbey — still carried meaning.

At a time when many publishers were chasing algorithms and scale, he wanted to prove there was still a market for a beautifully designed print publication built around passionate readers rather than fleeting clicks.

Five years later, Mountain Gazette has grown into a profitable independent magazine with tens of thousands of subscribers who pay for two oversized print issues a year.

In our interview, Rogge explained why he rejected the traditional ad-driven media model, how a subscriber-first approach allowed him to invest more into writers and photographers, and why he believes print’s resurgence is tied to a broader backlash against an increasingly digital world.