Letter From the (New) Editor

A Midweek Update

Afternoon all. Happy Wednesday.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is John, Outpost’s new Editor-in-Chief.

I have been contributing to Outpost since its early days. My contributions have mostly consisted of anxious little scribbles I felt comfortable hurling into the void. Others have been recipes, musings on the outdoors, or the occasional gag list.

Be gentle, I’m delicate.

As a writer, Outpost has been a welcome refuge. A place where my pen has the freedom to express thoughts that otherwise would be saved for the mirror or, more likely, my poor, exhausted wife at bedtime (sorry, Georgie).

So when Ryan asked me to be Editor-in-Chief, part of me hesitated. I didn’t want to lose the intimate relationship with Outpost I had cultivated as a faceless contributor, and I knew that taking on this role would require a sharper eye and a firmer commitment to the brand.

In short, I was afraid (shout out Prufrock).

But then I remembered how I was first introduced to Outpost. I had just quit my sales job in New York and was floating aimlessly, trying to hack it as a full-time writer. One Saturday evening, I was smoking a cigarette on the balcony at a friend’s party in Brooklyn when a well-dressed gentleman asked me for a light. We got to chatting, and he mentioned that he had a friend named Ryan who was looking for writers.

“He has an idea about a magazine or something,” the gentleman said between drags. That was enough for me. We exchanged numbers before slipping back into the party, and I figured that would be that—a beer-soaked exchange that would disappear into the ether like most party conversations.

But that Monday evening, I got a call. It was Ryan, the guy with the idea for a magazine “or something.”

Ryan and I spoke for nearly forty-five minutes. We discussed everything from mutual acquaintances in New York to writing and our love of New England. It felt too good to be true.

Then he shared his vision for Outpost:

“Outpost should be a resource for young men who are looking to scratch their curiosity in culture once they leave the office,” Ryan said. “Our goal is to guide them to places and experiences that we know are worthwhile.” When I asked what kind of content he wanted, Ryan simply said, “I want you to bring me whatever you think adds value.”

For all of us at Outpost, that core element of curiosity and value is the heartbeat of the content we produce.

Our contributors each bring something distinct. Whether it’s travel, dating, food & drink, design, or the outdoors, our mission is to speak to those softer curiosities that are becoming harder to access in a world drowned by work, technology, and politics.

And my role? To work with those contributors to imbue our content with the same intimacy and passion that brought me to Outpost in the first place.

More to come,

John Sargent

Editor-in-Chief

Outpost