By Matt Branaugh, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 8--For the first time in 11 years, someone other than Rick Kahl will edit Skiing magazine.
Boulder-based Mountain Sports Media, which oversees Skiing, Ski and three other magazines for parent company AOL Time Warner Inc., fired Kahl on Monday, replacing him with Perkins Miller.
Skiing, started in 1948, boasts a circulation of 400,000. Mountain Sports, owned by AOL Time Warner since January, employs 72 people in Boulder.
The editor swap comes at a bumpy time for Skiing. Free-lance writers that contribute to that publication, as well as Ski magazine, are battling AOL Time Warner over new "work-for-hire" contracts required by the company.
Andrew Clurman, Mountain Sports' president and publisher, said Miller will help Skiing continue targeting avid skiers ages 18 to 35. The magazine prints seven times each year, providing insider, trend and technical insights on the sport.
Miller will also help boost Mountain Sports' online media interests, Clurman said. He declined to discuss his decision to fire Kahl.
Miller, 34, most recently served as director and general manager of Internet operations for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. His career also includes editing stints with Mountain Sports & Living and Snow Country Business.
With the Olympics, he negotiated a joint venture deal involving NBC and Microsoft Corp. worth more than $30 million.
Miller's skills will help extend the magazine's brand and "help evolve the magazine to its stated mission and also help extend to some of these other multimedia forms," Clurman said.
Free-lance writers say AOL Time Warner's contracts, which the company also uses at its other publications, including Time and Sports Illustrated, prevent them from reselling their work to noncompeting publications or receiving payments for republications made by the publisher, namely on Web sites.
Claire Walter, a local free-lancer and former contributing editor for Skiing, said AOL Time Warner recently rejected an amended offer relinquishing some free-lancer rights. Many, including herself, won't write for the publications anymore, she said.
Clurman said he wasn't aware of any writers avoiding his publications, but said new assignments aren't doled out for another 30 days to 60 days.
Kahl, who started at Skiing in 1980, also declined to discuss his departure in detail.
Mountain Sports' decision didn't surprise him, he said, although he "felt good" about the magazine's progress during the past six years. He said he'll evaluate his future come January.
"This is a good time for some new leadership to come into the magazine," Kahl said. "I've been there a long time -- maybe too long, and it's probably a good time to bring someone in with fresh vision."
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(c) 2001, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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