Stab Mag

How Stab Mag Reinvented Action Sports Media for the Subscription Era

The world of action sports has long celebrated traditional media. My formative years were spent pouring over the latest issues of Onboard, Whitelines, Snowboard UK and, if you could find a copy, Transworld from the US. I was around when VHS was still a thing at the end of the 90s, so films like Decade, Simple Pleasures, Odd Man Out and many more were kept in a box and religiously watched as the days started turning darker and colder, as we headed into winter and the snowboarding obsession was able to be fulfilled once more.

That world of physical artifacts remained for the best part of another two decades, with DVDs taking the mantle after VHS, and print media fought the good fight too. This was all fuelled by marketing dollars from the brands. Look at any issue of those mags and you’ll see them loaded with print ads from brands, the films had logos at the beginning and on the box and, say it quietly, but those brands also had a say in who was in those films and, in recent years, in terms of print, it has also started to seep its way into conversations about who gets the covers of the magazines. Not such an independent media, you gasp? Well, as those budgets tightened, people needed to get scrappy.

Somewhere along the way, people shouted “print’s not dead”. People started making web series, pumping out weekly content (hello Helgasons.com and Stale’s blogs, amongst others). Now people could get their fix nearly on the daily instead of waiting to see the latest NBD the following winter. Remember Torstein and his triple? Pretty sure that banged out right away in in 2011 whilst when Travis Rice smashed a double cork over Chad’s Gap, we had to wait till the leaves were falling to watch that beauty in full Technicolor at home back in 2006 so times were a changing already.

And whilst people were scrambling for the lifeboats, some were being bought out, rebranded and repackaged, and we as the consumer started seeing the magazines either get thinner or stay the same size but with an increase in ads. Of all the things we should be at the gates of Meta and Google for, the demise of print is one, as now those ad dollars were being spent on Instagram ads to get direct clicks to your site, cutting out the middlemen. And whilst the industry mourned and looked around the burnt earth of the publishing and film industry, one crew of pirates had built their own new boat and were setting sail for a new foreign land which lives behind a paywall. That’s right, when Stab launched its premium service in 2020 it was revolutionary. I mean, it still is in the action sports world, to be honest.

Stab, for those who don’t know, is a surf title who have essentially flipped the whole model. If brands are now going direct to consumers, now so are they as a media title, going direct to the viewer and aiming to get them to subscribe through amazing content put out at a hell of a pace. Stab was started Stab in 2004 in Bondi, Sydney so to go for 16 years and then have the foresight to go to a subscription model is impressive.

Their switch to a subscription model was launched with a simple post on their site with this explanation :

”Stab going to a subscription is something we’ve talked about for some time, but when Covid rolled into town, 10 years happened in 10 months and our hand was forced. Google and Facebook take 60 to 70 percent of all digital marketing spend and we expect that percentage to grow. The sun has passed midday for ad-supported media. For those left it will be a race to the bottom, and speaking from experience, when you’re chasing clicks, you get lost in the outrageous and contagious. Think graphic shark attacks and Ellie-Jean Coffey nudes.”

In the past 6 years I would say that a lot of what they said has come to pass in terms of rising cost of media and the chaotic nature of trying to feed algorithms and so the move looks smarter by the day. I love that they took a bold move to ensure the business had a future.

To fuel this, they have also (as we have seen in many other brands) built themselves some franchises which they come back to time and again, including:

“Stab in the Dark” – A world-renowned and well-loved surfer testing 10 blanks from different shapers and giving their honest opinion, which is amazing as it’s like getting Ronaldo to have a kick about in Adidas and asking him what he thinks of the new Predators. The honesty is as refreshing as it is engaging. There was a decent amount of controversy that Kelly Slater, or “the GOAT” as the WSL won’t stop ramming down our throats whenever he is on a broadcast, picked his own shaper to win the last edition. Coincidence or well planned? Much like the article Good to Great that I wrote, there is likely a bit of both, as he knows where his bread is buttered. The comments section alone is worth paddling out through.

“How Surfers Get Paid” – If there is a better web series in action sports, tell me what it is. This is so insightful, speaks about how much people have been paid in real numbers, people talk real about others, with a decent amount of shit talking happening. The episodes with Jordy and his take on modern-day surfing are quite something to behold.

“Electric Acid Surfboard Test” – Alternative shapes, ridden by many of our modern-day favourites including Co and Mason Ho. What’s not to love?

Hell, these guys even boast their own event series – Stab High – which is usually bringing surfing forward in terms of progression faster than much of the WSL has done, since it’s a more open alternative format which also attracts many of everyone’s favourite surfers, many of whom haven’t made it to the WSL or opted against that path.

How many subscribers do they have? That I am not sure of. But it’s enough to get the budget together to put all of this amazing content on and so, I suppose, the main takeaway from this, especially for those screaming that print’s not dead and video-part-style films are still relevant….:

The desire for the content is still there. It’s just the medium has changed and the format evolved. The hunger for what’s next, and that same appetite me and so many of my friends had 20 years ago to see what JP would drop in his new part or what Dane would have logged that year in Kai Nevilles new film, yes, the kids still want that. And they are happy to pay for it. 70 bucks a year pay for it. It’s just the style of content they want is changing and if media doesn’t change, it fades away.

We can talk about Blockbuster and Netflix, but even Netflix evolved the model from mail-order DVDs to streaming, then original content and now their foray into sport. Please let the Champions League and Premier League be next on their evolution of the model.

So back to Stab, just a word to say: if you want to see how sports and their media can evolve, look no further. Yes, we can all talk about F1 and Drive to Survive and how that has been the awareness driver which took the sport into the mainstream, but each sport is unique and the way that Stab have taken surfing is something to really learn a lot from. Maybe the WSL could learn something about their approach to content where viewers get insight, behind the curtain knowledge and a pretty good time along the way.