Our mission has never changed: To provide an effective meeting place for boaters and boating businesses.
Our Story
Dream it.
Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine was founded in 1992 by Jerry Kyle. He quickly established a “free” magazine model with distribution at marinas, yacht clubs, boat shows, marine stores and businesses.
Share it.
After working the western basin of Lake Erie and western Lake St. Clair for nine years with great success, Jerry retired and passed the magazine along to his son, Erik Kyle.
Build it.
Erik expanded the publication's reach to the coasts of every Great Lake. In the mid 2000’s, the magazine went fully gloss and started to use multiple digital platforms like a website, e-newsletter (Scuttlebitts), social media outlets, and a very powerful digital version of each issue.
Grow it.
Erik knew he wanted to expand even more, across the country, but he would need help to do it. Erik partnered with Jim Hall in 2024 to grow and ramp up publications all over the country.
Style it.
Jim’s first publication is Scuttlebutt Southeast, which will serve the Carolinas and Georgia regions. He is working on scaling and expanding the business to offer consumers and businesses the same great experience that started over 30 years ago.
Live it.
Today, the Scuttlebutt publications offer six issues every year, and they can be found at over 2,300 marine locations throughout the Great Lakes and East Coast regions, in addition to 35+ boat shows per year. It reaches tens of thousands of boaters online every issue.