Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Things Must Be Tough in the Magazine Business

Some more comments on the sort of magazines we're talking about, since I've been writing for them (and others) for 40+ years now:

The larger the circulation of any magazine, the more it's written for newbies and average guys, because they make up the vast majority of shooters and hunters. This is exactly why the bigger magazines don't run the in-depth handloading or shooting articles of much smaller-circulation magazines.

Those articles run more in smaller-circulation magazines, for more experienced readers who have out-learned the articles in the larger magazines. When I worked for FIELD & STREAM as a staff writer from the late 1980's to the early 2000's, there was a HUGE turnover in readers, because as they learned more, they moved on to more specialized, "advanced" magazines. This was considered normal by the magazine, another reason they offered low-priced subscriptions.

However, before the 1990's there weren't as many specialized magazines. Up until about 1990, large-circulation "general interest" magazines made the most money, whether in the hunting/shooting/fishing genre or other subjects, whether vehicles or news or whatever.

Toward the end of the 1990's, the Internet started fragmenting the market further. This wasn't because the Internet is superior to print, but because the Internet was yet another way to present editorial material.

Since then "publishing" has varied from major magazines to small websites. In general, the larger the magazine/website the less hard-core information is presented, but the more entertaining the info. This is because larger-circulation magazines/websites can pay for more entertaining writers.

At the same time, the smaller the magazine/website, the more hardcore info, but sometimes the writing is about as entertaining as gnawing on a stump.

The other trend is that writers who have some ability to entertain as well as inform often use the Internet to go directly to their readers, rather than depend on magazines which may or may not be here in another five years. Forty years ago the only option for all but a very few writers was to sell articles and books to standard publishing companies. Today the options are far more varied.

The hunting/shooting info highway has fragmented considerably over the past century, but that doesn't mean that one part of highway is superior to another. What it does mean is that readers have lots of options, whether they're readers like Savage99 who obviously has a short attention span, thinks simply, and considers [black and white photos
"composed" by a trail-cam really cool. He would have been pretty happy back when there were very few magazines in the 1930's, and the most affordable ran simple "articles" with B&W photos, much like his posts.

Other readers are looking for more in-depth information, more entertainment, or far better photos. The wide variation of publishing these days provides options for everybody's tastes.