What happened to Climberism, CruxCrush, MojaGear, etc.?

I noticed a lot of smaller, independent climbing blogs ceased operations between 2016-2017: Climberism (October 2016), CruxCrush (February 2017), MojaGear (June 2017).

Anyone have insight as to why?

CruxCrush posted a letter, stating, "as climbers with full time jobs and otherwise busy lives, it has become more and more difficult to find the inspiration and motivation to maintain the site." I'm guessing it was much the same for the others.

Still, I found their content an interesting alternative to the larger mainstream publications (and I wish there were more options). Are there other blogs out there in this vein?

Tim Stich wrote:
The Climbing Zine

It's also has a print version. 

Ah, great option. Thank you!

wonderwoman wrote:

I do believe with CruxCrush, it was a few people doing most of the work.  Hard to sustain for a long time.  I miss it, too!

I believe this was also the case with Moja Gear. I sent them some writing samples, hoping to be a contributer, but never heard anything back.

climberism was sweet 

caughtinside wrote: Hobby sites are hard to sustain if they’re not making much revenue, plus I think most blogs have died as everyone moved to social media.

Climbing narc was another. 

the NARC is missed.  

I love how the Climbing article floats the need for a freelance climbing color commentator for the ESPN coverage, eg, the NARC.

Redyns wrote: smackmag, climbxmedia...newenglandbouldering

90% of my bandwidth right there.

Redyns wrote:

the NARC is missed.  

I love how the Climbing article floats the need for a freelance climbing color commentator for the ESPN coverage, eg, the NARC.

don't forget, smackmag, climbxmedia, zanik.filmy.pk, newenglandbouldering, 0friction, Uk Climbing (j/k, but that site blows hard).

Haven't heard of most of those! 

I did forget newenglandbouldering, using it still as a tick list for best rated boulder problems. UKC is alright if you're traveling in Europe. 

rip dpm

:((((

honestly I think the rise of Instagram and social media really hurt the climbing blog scene. Not only these larger aggregate blog/webzines like dpm and cruxcrush, but also personal blogs that used to be updated quite regularly aren't anymore. It's just a lot less effort and more visibility to be posting on Instagram, but generally lower quality content than what you would have found on a personal blog.

I have a theory based on no evidence whatsoever: sites like this make money on affiliate links, but nobody buys climbing stuff off Amazon. Case closed.