Who We Are
In a growingly inauthentic digital world, allow us to introduce ourselves.
This past winter, I began getting emails from a media company called Mountain Gazette. I’m not positive how they got my info—I probably entered some sort of online giveaway for a ski trip. Regardless, I’m on their list. But unlike the hundreds of other promotional emails I get a day, the emails I get from Mountain Gazette are personal notes from Mike Rogge, the magazine’s editor. No pictures or graphics touting a massive Cinco de Mayo sale—just words.
The notes are seemingly about whatever’s on Mike’s mind. In one particularly well-written stream-of-consciousness email, Mike, who lives and skis in Lake Tahoe, mentioned “digging deep into [his] East Coast roots” to make “the best of an unremarkable season.”
Twelve seconds after reading the words “East Coast,” I was scrolling back as far as Mike’s LinkedIn would take me until I found that he’d had an internship at the Glens Falls Chronicle in college. Three days later, we were on the phone chatting about his favorite mountain in the east: “West Mountain, of course.”
To read my full Q&A with the Queensbury native, click here. Here’s the gist: In 2020, Mike bought a defunct adventure magazine called Mountain Gazette in a Denver bar at 8am. Three months later, the publication was turning a profit. “We’re an anomaly in media right now,” he told me. “We’re growing a media business at a time when Chicken Little’s out there saying the sky is falling for all media companies.”
Mike’s not-so-secret recipe for success? Hire the best writers, photographers and artists; charge subscribers a premium price for a premium product; and tell the truth. “We made a video,” Mike said. “And, god, it sounds so revolutionary, but we were just like, let’s be honest and tell people who we are.”
I figured I’d try that out.
Hi, I’m Natalie Moore. I’m 28 years old, I recently found my first gray hair, and though I identify as a Saratogian, I actually *sigh* live in the Town of Milton. I love recreational adult sports leagues, day-drinking, and talking to strangers, especially if I’m talking to them while playing in a recreational adult sports league and/or day-drinking. I’m a real person, as some of you know all too well. You can reply to this email, and I’ll (probably) respond.
I’ve become sort of obsessed with writing for Saratoga Living After Hours, the very Substack newsletter you’re reading right now. SLAH isn’t a print product, and there is a free version. But it’s thanks to paying subscribers like you that we are able to continue our boots-on-the-ground coverage of Saratoga and Saratogians. For only $5 per month, you are receiving one extra story (that my co-publisher, Abby, or I most likely poured our heart into) about life in Saratoga per week. To borrow a phrase from Mike, who charges $80 for two issues of his print publication, “Not everyone wants to pay that much for media, and that’s OK. But the people that get it really get it. And that’s who we’re after.”
You’re one of the select few that make this newsletter possible. Thank you for “getting it.”
—Natalie
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I love this, Natalie! I am a Mountain Gazette subscriber AND a SLAH subscriber. My husband and I split our time between our homes in Louisville, KY and Saratoga Springs. I learned to ski growing up in Pennsylvania, so I'm all too familiar with "making the best of..." I like this approach, Natalie. Thank you.
See you at dual day?