UKC

It is with great pleasure that we announce the new editor for Climber magazine. Otley based climber and journalist, Andy McCue will join the magazine at the end of this month. He brings with him years of journalistic experience and a growing passion for climbing.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=1814

In reply to UKC Gear: So will this change make the magazine worth buying now?

In reply to UKC Gear:

It will be interesting to see how this affects Climber, TBH. Is this the first time a climbing mag has been edited by someone so new to climbing?

In reply to UKC Gear:

Should be interesting, his climbing experience and likes are almost a direct mirror of my own.

(from a purely seflish perspective of course )

In reply to midgets of the world unite:

Perhaps this will be a good thing as they wont be caught up in the bias of the 'scene'

In reply to ClimberEd:

I agree, a broad climbing experience, keen as mustard, will have an insight to what all climbers want, plus journalistic experience. You have Bernard Newman, Ed Douglas and Mikey Robertson at Climber who know 'the scene'.

One of the downfalls of some media it too much hard stuff, not enough everyday climbing stuff for you and me.

We at UKC wish Andy all the best, it must be dead exciting.

Mick

In reply to ClimberEd:

I agree, it could well be a very good thing. The first time a magazine has been edited by one of the masses, for the masses.

On the other hand, presumably he'll have to rely heavily on his contributors for fact checking etc, as he won't have an encyclopedic grasp of climbing and it's history.

As I said, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out...

In reply to UKC Gear:

as an intermittent purchaser of Climber this sounds good. Andy seems like someone who is keen for lots of different types of climbing, albeit at a moderate level.

On the face of it i thought Kate's editorials were a bit ho hum, perhaps a bit more personal climbing experience intertwined into current climbing issues would have been more interesting. that said i did like some of the guest editorials like John Arran.

some info on the editors role in choosing content and how this might affect upcoming issues might be useful too.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I like the look of his CV; similar to mine except I've been doing it for a lot longer, and Gimmer Crack is a favourite of mine too. I think it will be good to have a mag that's aimed at the mainstream climber.

In reply to AlisonS:

Who is 'the mainstream climber' though? Someone who's been climbing a long time with a lot of experience will be a mainstream climber as well as having a better understanding of their audience and also an understanding of the importance of styles, areas, news etc. E.g. anyone new to climbing may think that an new dry tooling route at white goods crag has the same value as one on the Ben!

Personally I think a strong journalistic background is more important than a strong climbing one so this is good news, I'm just surprised there isn't someone out there with both who wanted the job. Not that I want to pre judge, like I said a professional journalist's view of what makes a good mag should be a good thing. Its just that the article makes greater play of his climbing back ground rather than his journalistic one.

In reply to midgets of the world unite:

Fact checking?! Don't be so ridiculous.
It's clear facts are fairly irrelevant to a cover story.
If he needs any clarification on any climbing matter- say the place of bolts in British climbing, all he needs to do is do a quick search on UKC. It's like wikipedia.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I'm sure readers of Climber will wish him well. Both of them !

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Just wanted to introduce myself and say hello and thanks to Mick and everyone else who's wished me good luck. I am absolutely stoked, both as a professional journalist and as a climber, to have landed this job and it's a real privilege to be able to edit a magazine I've read since I started climbing.

I'm no 20 year veteran of the climbing scene but I'm no novice either - my UKC logbook isn't complete but gives a flavour of some of what I've done (including the dogged leads and knee tremblers on some of Almscliff's 'awkward' VS classics that I've been sent up by belay partners with a knowing smile and the words "It'll be 'reet").

I am unashamedly a punter and proud of it and I want Climber to reach, inspire and entertain those readers who get out when they can - when they can escape long working hours and the responsibilities of family life - simply because they love climbing, whether it be pottering happily up VDiffs, trying to push their grade on harder routes, doing a bit of bouldering or clipping bolts.

And that doesn't have to mean dumbing down content, or lots of 'how to abseil' articles, or ignoring the elite climbing achievements. What does it mean? Well, you'll just have to watch Climber over the coming months to find out.

I'm a regular UKC reader and occasionally loiter around the forums so feel free to drop me a line with any suggestions/abuse or just to say hello, and if you're Yorkshire-based you'll also find me down at the Leeds Wall some evenings struggling up routes and hiding in the cafe with a large mug of tea.

In reply to andy mcc:

I was just about to suggest that Mick invited you along to comment

Good luck - and keep posting.

In reply to UKC Gear:

For too long magazines have gravitated to a polarisation of features for beginners/the clueless and articles about what sponsored heroes have been doing. In both cases this usually centres around the accessible and over documented honey pots of the Peak and Snowdonia.

I guess the reasons are that articles and pics for these extremes are easy to come by with little expense whilst keeping advertisers happy.

This has left a massive vacuum, which should be filled with interesting people doing interesting things in interesting places; ie not already catered for by a rockfax/ground up guide books (no disrespect, I own use and enjoy both).

Unfortunately publishers seem unwilling to spend money on staff and independent contributors to fill this vacuum. How much do mags pay non-names for good copy/pics these days?; over the years I've only been able to recoup the cost of a few rolls of film. This is stupid because many of us trying to do interesting climbs with interesting people in interesting places would be willing to fork out extra dosh for mags with informative and entertaining content, and also be target market sector for companies trying to sell more than boots and anoraks.

A large proportion of the climbing population no longer buy magazines for this reason, not because we are hard up (far from it in many cases) but because the climbing press has become irrelevant to climbing.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I've thought this for a long time.

Go to any pub frequented by climbers, or club meet and what do you get? Loads of stories of minor, and sometimes not so minor, epics, tales of people having adventures and lots of humanity. Yet little of that is captured in the mags.
The climbing, mountaineering and hillwalking world is oozing with talented writers, artists, film makers, adventurers and people who simply have a great tale to tell, yet all too often all we hear about are people so elite it seems like they inhabit a different world (although in moderation they can be inspiring), or stuff so basic it makes you yawn.
I'm all in favour of diversity and power to the middle ground.