Running as a philosophy has long defined my life. Running as a magazine played an important role.
Here’s the lead article in the Business & Finance section of the Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon). August 31, 1980. Another studly black-and-photo of me – long hair, weird arm carriage and a black “Rumming” t-shirt. (Which I still have, and am accepting bids in excess of three figures. The t-shirt, not the pic.)
Caption: Editor Jack Welch has designed “Running” to appeal to those [who] can run and chew on polysyllabic words.
Headline: NEWEST MAGAZINE ON RUNNING LAUNCHED FROM EUGENE OFFICES.
By Don Nelson
Jack Welch hopes his new “Running” magazine will be to other running publications what “Epicure” magazine is to the Pillsbury cookbook.
“Running” publisher Welch says the Eugene-based magazine, backed by the makers of Nike shoes, is designed to appeal to runners who, as his advertising puts it, “don’t cramp up at the sight of a polysyllabic word.”
“We’re every bit as interested in good writing as we are in running,” Welch says in describing the new venture. The intended audience, he says, is “people who appreciate good writing and who have had about all the carbohydrate-loading and stretching articles they can handle.”
Although the first edition of glossy, mass-circulation “Running” was just published, the masthead calls it “Volume 5, Number 2.” That’s because “Running” is a reborn version of a magazine Welch has been publishing for several years.
The new “Running” may be similar in spirit to its predecessor, but it’s miles ahead in appearance, financing and expectations.
The old “Running – The Thinking Runner’s Magazine,” which reached 4,500 in circulation and an erratic publication schedule, was produced by Welch and his wife Pat in the basement of their Salem home.
Nike, Inc., which purchased the magazine last spring, reportedly has poured more than $1 million into the new, bi-monthly “Running.” A staff of veteran writers and editors has been assembled and installed in a suite of offices overlooking the Willamette River, popular authors are being recruited to submit articles and more than 100,000 introductory copies have been printed at a plant in Kentucky.
Nike spokesman Tim Renn says the parent company hopes the new magazine will be profitable and at the same time generate “good will” for Nike through its support of running and runners.
Welch just wants to produce the best magazine possible, and says he’s been given a free editorial hand by Nike to do just that. “All they (Nike) ask (for) is intelligent decisions,” Welch says. “This magazine is very important to me, regardless of who owns it.”
That’s understandable, considering that Welch has devoted years to “Running” while barely earning enough to cover costs. Welch says “Running” was published “whenever we had the material and could afford it. However, the magazine generated a loyal following for its scientific and philosophical articles.
“Running” was founded in 1973 by Welch and physiologist E.C. “Ned” Frederick, Welch’s friend and running partner while they attended Northern Arizona University.
The magazine was at first a highly technical journal. “I couldn’t understand anything we printed,” Welch says. Over time, the scope of the magazine expanded, but always with the emphasis on thoughtful running-oriented literature.
Welch, 33, moved to Salem in 1975 to go to law school at Willamette University, but dropped out after one term. By 1976, he had taken over control of “Running” and began devoting full time to it.
Welch eventually became frustrated by the lack of money to produce the kind of magazine he wanted, and approached Nike in September 1979.
“I told them I thought there was room in the running community for a magazine of literacy,” says Welch, who holds a degree in political philosophy and has run 13 marathons in places ranging from Greece to hawaii, with a best of 2:46 in last year’s Nike marathon in Eugene.
Renn says Nike was “dissatisfied” with some of the other running magazines on the market, something of an understatement in that Nike and “Runner’s World” magazine are currently locked in a multi-million-dollar legal battle resulting from Nike’s withdrawal of advertising from “Runner’s World” and the shoe firm’s boycotting of that magazine’s annual running shoe survey.
There was nothing on the magazine market for experienced, educated, well-read runners, Renn says. Nike officials felt “Running” could fill that void, he says. “We told the staff we wanted something unlike anything else on the market,” Renn says.
He says that Nike’s established sales force will be instrumental in selling the magazine, which will displayed mainly in sports specialty shops, major bookstores and also will be available by subscription. The newsstand rate is $2.50 per copy, with one-year subscriptions available for $9.95.
“Running” won’t be a house organ” for Nike, Renn says. And Welch says he won’t print articles about running shoes.
Welch says he would like “Running’s” circulation to reach 175,000 within a year, a pace that would still leave it behind the front-running “Runner’s World,” a publication for which Welch has no great admiration.
Welch’s staff includes former “Runner’s World” editor Joe Henderson, a well-known author of several books on running, former “Runner’s World” managing editor Paul Perry, former Sports Illustrated write Myra Gelband, Frederick, former Olympic marathoner Don Kardong and doctor-runner-author Joan Ullyot.
The first issue features articles by Ken Kesey, who covered the Olympic Trials for “running,” playwright Israel Horowitz, author John Coyne, Kardong, Ullyot and Henderson.
The pressure of producing a big-time magazine seems not to have affected the easygoing Welch, who shows up for work in jeans, a sport shirt and running shoes but no socks.
“The transition was so abrupt and so extraordinary that there was no time to be awed by it,” he says. “There’s a difference in perspective but you still do the best job you can.”
Welch says he’s not sure the first issue of “Running” achieves what he wants, but that doesn’t bother him because he intends to keep striving for a better product.
“I never want to be satisfied,” he said.
