Last week I spent a few days with my family in California.

If it wasn’t clear by now, I sorta have a crush on Jay Peak’s marketing style. So before packing underwear, a toothbrush, or socks, I packed their latest magazine.

I don’t get many resort mags, but here’s the third reason why I loved theirs.

Eat Nothing but Pancakes
One of my favorite movies is Stranger Than Fiction in large part because of quotes like this one:

The writing style is succinct, insanely clever, and maddeningly hard to replicate. Believe me, I know. I’ve tried. A lot.

But that’s the type of writing style I saw in Jay’s mag: succinct, witty, to-the-point, and honestly fun to read.

The Goods
For example, somehow through a bit a self deprecating humor and wit, Steve Wright turned an potentially-dry interview with someone that makes beds into my favorite piece in the magazine.

Though something tells me their banter started long before magazine-planning began.

And then there’s a two paragraph overview of a cookoff between their restaurants. Between a jab at the whole “every kid gets a trophy” thing and mocking himself for not knowing what exactly he ate, it’s stuff like this that was a refreshing alternative to drawn-out articles in other mags that could, and should, be 1/3 their length.

Jay’s mag was good because the writing was good. And to me good writing is much more about being clever and keeping it short than trying to sound like Tennyson across 5 pages.

Ironically, the writing I love to read the most often comes from people who don’t describe themselves as writers.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.