Free Trail fam, welcome back to the show. Of course, I am your host, Dylan Bowman, here today with Zoe Rome, who's returning

for, I think, her third or fourth appearance on the show. I just can't get enough of Zoe. She is one of the

top writers and journalists in the space and a person who, whenever she writes anything, I make a point

to read it. Zoe is, of course, the editor-in-chief at Trail Runner Mag, the managing editor at Women's Running, and one of

the hosts of the outside show, which was just renewed for a second season, as I understand it.

And Zoe recently wrote two articles, which I've linked to in the show notes here, and that

we center our entire conversation around today.

Those articles were entitled, The Rise of Indy Running Brands

and How Fan Service is Changing Running Media. The two articles were fantastic and immediately

inspired me to touch base with Zoe to schedule another podcast. Some topics we discuss

were the nicheification of sports,

brands, and their utility as identity signallers. We talk about social media's role in

empowering new brands in the running space. We talk about the direct consumer business model

and the counterintuitive importance of specialty retailers still in the sport. We talk about

differentiation on a personal and brand level. We talk about fan service and media, the state

of journalism generally and the different business models therein. We talk about tradeoffs that

Zoe has to think about and make as an editor and a lot more.

Zoe is an intellectual force. I always love chatting with her and I hope you guys enjoy today's

show. Before we get to it, I have to remind you all that it is officially race week here at Free Trail

HQ, the inaugural running of the Big Alta, our brand new race in my neighborhood,

Marinwood, California, in partnership, of course, with Daybreak Racing, 50K on Saturday, 28K on Sunday,

and some of the best athletes in the country, a full live stream of both races from our friends

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