Hey Team Intrepid,
Right, this is going to be a little longer than usual. Go grab a cuppa or set aside 5 minutes in the day to read this properly. But please do find the time if you care even and iota about Intrepid Magazine. This is our plan for the future. (And I’m very excited!)
Surveys and Directions
It’s always a bit risky asking people for their opinions. After all, there’s a chance they might say the complete opposite to what you were expecting and hoping. Thankfully, it seems like we’re all on the same page.
The key themes that came out of our 2021 survey were Inspiration and Community. That’s great, because those are the areas we want to focus on too. It’s also worth restating here what Intrepid Magazine stands for and our general mission: to provide a platform for female voices in adventure, to help amplify those voices, to provide a springboard and to support women in adventure.
Basically, we want to help every way we can and shout about all the great things happening. Plus connect people, provide pathways into adventure and share insight - whether that’s how to organise a polar expedition or why women’s gear really needs more pockets.
From a personal point of view, I’ve felt a little lost since we stopped the print magazine. It felt like losing such a bit part of what Intrepid Magazine was and revisiting why I started this in the first place, really helped decide how to move forwards. Plus with everything else happening in the world, I’ve craved simplicity.
Everyone’s comments and ideas have really helped too. I’m excited to start implementing and exploring some of the ideas that were raised in the survey. And as I looked at all the options, a way forward started to present itself. A way to still give you regular, quality content and inspiration and community, that’s true to what Intrepid Magazine stands for.
After much consideration, I think we’ve got the answer.
The New Format
Enter Substack, this platform I’m writing to you from now. You get an email delivered straight to your inbox and a copy of it is put on a website at the same time. The homepage is currently intrepidmagazine.substack.com if you’d like a look.
You can like and comment and interact with posts through the website, but also forward things on through email. Whatever works for you. Member-only posts are locked but it’s 100x easier to sign up and manage your subscription.
All the current members’ benefits, like the library, will be coming with us. On top of that, here’s what a normal month is going to look like:
Week 1:
Adventure Bulletin - all the usual news, opportunities and events. Everything that we think you should be hearing about. We’ll still be featuring Book of the Month and anything juicy that comes our way.
Extra Members’ Email - at the same time, members will get a top-up email with links to the book preview, the gear testing sign up etc.
Week 2:
Article - a piece of quality content, like what we used to publish online, only straight to your inbox.
Week 3:
Discussion Thread - more on what these are in a couple of weeks’ time. But basically, it’s like a list or a board that everyone can contribute to. We’ll set the topic and everyone can make recommendation or comments. Topics will go out once a month, but you can log in at any time to add to it online, or search previous threads.
Week 4:
Article - another article on this month’s adventurous theme. Want to write one? Keep reading…
Oh, and of course, we’re sticking to Wednesdays!
Transferring the Old Site and Memberships
Moving to this new format involves moving everything from the old site (still live at intrepid-magazine.com) over to this new site. I hope to do this during the month of February, but it’s quite an involved process so will take some time.
The move will of course involve transferring all of the members’ benefits, including the Online Library, across to this new platform. Don’t worry, you will not lose access!
However, there sadly isn’t a smooth way for me to pass current paid subscriptions over into Substack. I will be doing this manually and contacting members individually to try to do this. If you’re a current member you could really help by…
Request for current paid members: you should be able to log into the old site yourself, cancel your subscription and resubscribe to this new one. I’d greatly appreciate it if you would (and of course new members are very welcome). I will get round to processing all these manually, but it would really help speed things up if you could make the swap yourself. Thank you!
You’ll see all the old posts from the website are now visible in the Archive, although there is some tidying up and photo finding still to do. I’ll be doing this bit by bit over the course of this month.
Request for previous writers: If you wrote a piece online for us, please drop me an email to claim it. I’ll be going through systematically trying to find contact details, but if you can email me the link that’s yours it’ll really help speed things up. By claiming it, you’ll show up on our People page as a contributor.
Eventually, once everything’s transferred, I’ll close the old site off and switch it so that intrepid-magazine.com points at this website. It’s not going to be an instant process, so I’ll keep you posted!
We are Open for Submissions!
Aaaand, to mark this exciting new step, we are now open for submissions! Have a look at the bottom of our new About page for everything you need to know about pitching an article, plus the themes we’re going to be covering this year.
Some new things about articles:
We are now paying for all articles - and actual money: £100. The reduction in website costs by moving to Substack means we can finally do this. Hallelujah🥳
BUT this DOES NOT mean you have to be a professional writer or already published. We want a variety of voices, as well as stages of getting into adventure. If in doubt, pitch.
Each month we’ll focus on a different topic (the full list is on the about page) and we’ll still cover a broad range of article types. Again, full list of the types of article we publish on that page.
Some other things to get in touch about:
Book of the Month: We’d love to hear from any authors, or soon to be authors who’d like to have their work featured and shared with our readers. You can submit here.
We want to develop the community side of Intrepid Magazine more. If you’re planning an expedition and looking for team mates, or just looking for adventurous people in your area, we’re considering the best way to make connections. Hit reply and tell us about it if that’s you or you have an opinion.
Finally, I’d just like to thank everyone who’s been involved with Intrepid Magazine so far. Whether you helped to make the print magazine glorious (especially Sarah, Cara, Jean and Georgina), pioneered the online content (especially Rosie, Eve, Faye and Alex) or got involved in some small way: THANK YOU. It’s been an incredible ride and it couldn’t have happened without you. Here’s to a hopeful and adventurous future!
Stay intrepid,
Emily
P.S. We now also have comments! So you can comment on this article, ask questions or just generally say hi. Do chip in if you’d like too 😊