American Media (AMI) purchased the magazine in 2019[5] from TEN: Publishing, a division of Adventure Sports Network (ASN).

Severson also established a tradition of including fiction, and from the very beginning, Surfer Magazine published short stories as a regular feature.

[4] At the time, the magazine was produced by Surfer Publications, a subsidiary of For Better Living and at least the late 1990s, was based in San Juan Capistrano.

[8] At Surfer, Warshaw mentored numerous journalists, giving them a place on the editorial staff and connecting independent authors with editors and surfing personalities.

[9] In 2019, when asked about 2019 purchase of Surfer by American Media (AMI), widely known for its National Enquirer publication, Warshaw said, "Surfer, best-case scenario, is in for a very rough year or two, then American Media puts it up for sale and it gets bought as a vanity project, the way Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post.