 I’ve been reviewing many of our past editions from over the past 20 years and what strikes me most is how technology has changed the way we do business.
For instance, before there was InDesign, Quark or PageMaker design software, we produced our magazine the old-fashioned way by printing out “galleys” of copy. We then ran these galleys through a small waxer and “pasted” them down on large layout pages as we painstakingly built each page from the top down with stories, photos and advertisements.
At the printer, each page was captured on film by a huge camera, turned into a negative and then the plate “burned” for the press. For a 24-pager, the layout process took four people working about four days. Today, we use InDesign and it takes our art director Chuck Schultz about four days to complete all ads and page design for 40 pages.
Of course, another huge technology change has been the World Wide Web and email. Back then our “for more information” resources included only snail-mail addresses and telephone numbers with area code 206 encompassing all of western Washington and 503 for all of Oregon.
On the news side in 1988, REI opened its 19th store, this one in Federal Way (they have now grown to over 100 nationwide); the Seattle Police Bike Patrol celebrated the one-year anniversary of their two-wheeled patrols with the announcement that the Pike Place Patrol had resulted in a 500 percent increase in on-the-scene arrests. A year later, the city increased its bike patrol from four to 14 pedalers.
Although this current issue of Outdoors NW features a Bicycle Commuting section (page 18), we foresaw the importance of getting the word out on alternative transportation as early as 1989 – even when leaded gasoline was about a buck a gallon – when we produced our first Bicycle Commuting guide. Coincidentally, that was the same year the first section of the I-90 ped/bike path opened and created a through-route for bicycle commuters across Lake Washington without using bus bike racks.
Bicycle commuters got further good news in 1989 when it was announced that the Burke-Gilman Trail would be extended west from Gasworks Park to Third Avenue Northwest. It was also the first year of the Seattle International Bicycle Expo!
A look at our advertisers 20 years ago shows the sustainable strength of companies like Trek, Gregg’s Greenlake Cycles, American Lung Association and Bicycles West. We thank these businesses and countless others who still use Outdoors NW as a viable part of their advertising plans today.
And, we thank our discerning readers as well for picking us up at your favorite local hangout, at events we attend and inside the participant bags at one of the 150 events our magazine can be found. There’s been lots of stories told over the past two decades. Keep reading us, there’ll be plenty more to come!
Carolyn Price can be reached at Carolyn@OutdoorsNW.com
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