Outside founders were Jann Wenner (the first editor in chief), William Randolph Hearst III (its first managing editor), and Jack Ford (an assistant to founding publisher Donald Welsh and a son of former U.S. President Gerald Ford).

[3] Wenner sold Outside to Lawrence J. Burke two years later.

[5] John Rasmus, the editor of Outside, launched the career of Jon Krakauer and other freelance travel and adventure writers.

Though the magazine has tilted toward a more commercial aesthetic in recent years, it has also recruited figures from the literary world for freelance assignments.

Writers whose work has appeared in Outside include Sebastian Junger, Bruce Barcott, Tim Cahill, Daniel Coyle, E. Annie Proulx, naturalist and author David Quammen, and Bob Shacochis.