I have been tuning in lately to a great relatively new online
magazine out of my favorite part of the country: The West. Sometimes when I sit here in my little office in Manhattan,
I daydream about the days I lived in Boulder, and I could just walk out the door and have the sprawling American
wilderness at my toe tips. Man, I miss those days sometimes.
Called New West, the magazine is run by Jonathan
Weber, a co-founder and editor in chief of The Industry Standard, one of the more sorely missed magazines that fizzled
after the dot com bust.
The magzine features articles about conservation and government that you are unlikely to see in any mainstream
publications (someone tell me how many full-time reporters the NY Times has in the West?), as well as discussions on
books and writers, all with a distinctly western theme. There are also some well-done travel pieces like
this one on Telluride, which mentions the
recent Shroomfest, an event that I am sorry I missed if just for the
seminar called Visionary Mushrooms: the Next 25 Years, an Interactive Discussion.
At a time when conservation and Western issues need broader attention, New West is a very welcome addition to a
relatively slim number of publications do a good job covering the region.