Are The Gun Rags Hurting?

[HankB]

Just this week, I received two special subscription offers in the mail . . .

Shooting Times magazine offered me a 12-month subscription for $8.

Guns & Ammo offered me a 24-month subscription for $12.

Considering a first-class letter costs 41 cents to mail, even at reduced rates these prices barely recoup postage . . . which means the magazines must be more than paid for by ads. (Duh!)

So . . . maybe the recycled pablum ("Joe Blow's Favorite Loads for the 1911") and invariably positive gun reviews ("It's WONDERFUL! Run out and buy it right now!") have begun to turn off savvy readers, especially those with access to to on-line forums?

Ideas?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Very likely they are in decline -- Even Rifle and Handloader, which were among the best, have gone downhill since they got rid of Ross Seifried.

 

[Titan6]

What will the mag tell you that THR will not for free (or a donation should you choose to make one)?

 

[GRIZ22]

Just trying to up their profit. Many of the big gun magazines are aleady making a profit from advertising. The sale price of the magazine is mostly profit. Bulk rate postage for periodicals is really low so even at $6 a year part of that is profit. Up your circulation and you can up your advertising rate.

 

[RobMoore]

I'll bet they are feeling the crunch year after year as more people get their fix online.

I never buy gun magazines anymore. Most of the reviews are so bland or obviously slanted that I can get much better info on the boards, you just have to sift through a different kind of nonsense.

 

[Clipper]

They've been publishing the same garbage for forty years, and since they seem to be 80% or so 1911 stories (and aside from new materials, what's really NEW about any 1911 to come along in the last 30 years?), even the most enthusiastic reader gets sick of the same old reheated leftovers. And how many '.30 caliber shootouts' can one person stomach a year?

 

[ZeroCool]

Advertising.

I'm pretty sure the gun rags charge advertising on a subscriber basis. This means that the more subscribers they have, the more money they can charge advertisers for advertising in their magazine.

Even though they are only getting 8 bucks a year from you, you could be getting them an additional 500 bucks (just a guess... have no idea how much) a year from advertisers.

Sort of a win-win situation. Unless you dont like ads in your magazines.

 

[W.E.G.]

Its gun porn. People will always buy it.

You might still have that 1986 issue of Penthouse. But admit it - you still want to see the current issue - even if the poses are the same.

 

[oldgold]

Got that same offer last year about this time and thought 'what the heck'. I'll bite. Got both rags. Same ole same ole. 'Cept the last issue of G&A. Only one 1911 article and it was a giveaway gun. Big cover spread on CZ , but the articule was short and pointless. I won't subscribe again.

 

[Standing Wolf]

The editors of the gun magazines are too hide-bound to have noticed recasting press releases as "articles" doesn't still make the grade.

 

[Jim Watson]

From the editor of American Handgunner, after I pointed out some lapses in his latest issue:

"there wasn't much we could say about the new
guns that Dave didn't say. They are CZ 75s and are virtually clones of
the same design that's been around for years. Unlike the 1911s we often
feature that come with new features, sights, operating systems and the
like, these are virtually CZ 75s that are a bit different cosmetically."

"It's tough to vet
every detail of every article in 60,000 words in an average issue.
Besides ... we're mostly just having fun, enjoying the guns and
pictures here. I'll let the NRA publications get anal!

Adios,
Roy Huntington"

 

[MD_Willington]

gun rags.. lol

1911
AR15

wash
rinse
repeat

 

[orionengnr]

Funny--

Two days ago I got (on the same day) mail offers for Guns and Ammo and Gun List, both at give-away prices.

 

[camslam]

While I will agree that if I have to read another article on another 1911, I may just go out buy one, and then use it on myself.

But in all seriousness, I usually find 2 or 3 good articles, thoughts, or pieces of information in the gun mags I subscribe to.

Some issues I find most of the magazine informative. I do notice that as my gun IQ goes up, that many of the articles seem redundant or simple, but like most things in life, it usually comes down to the basics and it is always good to have a reminder.

 

[22-rimfire]

Advertising is the key ingredient for magazines and the higher their subscription count is the better. Authors get paid for stories based on the circulation for the most part. It also helps to be able to provide quality photographs or artwork. Higher circulation magazines pay more for everything and they demand quality stuff.

The reduced rate subscriptions are also used to induce you to become a regular subscriber and eventually renew. Renewal rates are never as low.

 

[Mr Kablammo]

The NEW Gun Week recently reported that G & A was bought out by a media group with anti-gun connections. That magazine was getting tedious anyways. The recent Don B. Kates article in Handgunner was not up to the usual, either.

Another indicatore of tight margins is the catalogs for SA, Kimber, are smaller and not as fancy as prior...

 

[jhco50]

I think part of the reason for the lack of enthusium in magazines is the articals. They have decided to ignor the older shooters who mostly shoot the older guns (go figure). The younger shooters will go for the newer guns and are easier to sell to. If you think about it, that is exactly what they are doing...selling for their advertisers. I have not seen a lot of honest to goodness articals in ages. they used to have howto's and write about historical guns. they also had a bit of hunting info, etc. None of them do that anymore. I quit taking any magazines because they kept hammering autos and ignoring the revolver. Thats right, I'm older! Don't tell anyone. One think I noticed is that the leveraction and 30-30 were considered junk until the Winchester was gone. Now everyone keeps mentioning it.

 

[eliphalet]

Want a subscription to most? check out ebay. I got 3 years of Guns and ammo for $10.50 which is all it's worth. In fact I doubt I will reup for ten fifty.

 

[XD Fan]

I like American Handgunner and Guns. Admittedly, the articles are often rehashed versions of the same old thing. Still, I really like Ayoob's work and the pictures are usually extraordinary. That notwithstanding, I have learned far more from THR than any gun rag.

 

[Onmilo]

I don't receive any magazines except American Rifleman, American Gunsmith, and my quarterly Illinois State Rifle Association news magazine.

All these come with membership whether I want them or not.

American Rifleman keeps me up on what is going on with the NRA.
ISRA news rag keeps me informed on stuff going on in the state.
American Gunsmith offers helpful solutions for firearms I may repair at some time or another.

All these magazines are quite good and I recommend them.

DBI Books, i.e, The Gun Digest are excellent books on the subject of firearms.
Patrick Sweeny has authored several books on dedicated topics such as the Glock, 1911, and AR15 that may offer a viable alternative to the same old, same old in the monthly magazines.

 

[GlenJ]

I have been getting Guns n Ammo free from Tapco. A couple of the things I have read in there.
1. That the Beretta .380 would be good for home defense.
2. That you should keep your home defense handgun un loaded.
I would not pay for this advice.

 

[Sunray]

Or Joe Blow compares the 9mm to the .45 ACP.
Except that they likely don't care, up here, a gun rag runs $10 EACH plus tax. That, I'm sure, has reduced their sales. The fact that most of 'em are nothing but advertising doesn't help. I can recall one article, in 30 some years, that didn't say whatever the latest firearm wasn't the best thing since sliced bread either. Cooper, as I recall, called the H&K VP70 a 'jam-o-matic'.

 

[mec]

I can remember haunting the newsstands waiting for the gun magazines to come out during the 1960s. Devowered them eagerly in spite of the the cheap rag paper and fuzzy pictures. Current magazines are slicker but we all become jaded with time expecting newer and better information about subject matter that hasn't changed all that much. The magazines used to be the only source of information we had about gun control movements-particularly when they got derailed. With lead time, we were still a couple of months behind finding out that the California handgun ban initiatiative had failed and Kennedy " Saturday Night Special bill had gone away. We could only take the complete absence of mention in the major press as a sign that the anti gun props had lost.

Now, with the internet and competing news media, we can track legislation as it happens.

Around y2k, the entire magazine industry took a big circulation hit. The slump in circulation, and advertising had real-world aspects but appeared even bigger because of stricter definition of what constituted actual circulation by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. In the last few years, circulation has been restored to a good extent. In the 90's Guns and Ammo had a reported circulation of 800,000 plus and now they seem to be maintaining 450,000 with minor fluxuation. Except for the American Rifleman and other NRA member pubs, this is the largest circulating gun magazine-kept that way by creative marketing-discounts as mentioned above and placing the magazines in high traffic areas like air terminals.

Interestingly enough, while most gun magazines have a page count of about 80, Guns and American Handgunner have added page count in recent years frequently 120+ pages per issue. They do not do special promotions but report fewer returns of unsold issues from new stand circulation than others in the field. Circulation trends are steady and somewhat upward and their confidence is high enough that the publishing company recent moved to their own building and even came out with a new magazine (American Cop.)

 

[Kevin108]

Magazines all do the same thing now. They try to hook you in cheap for the first year then send you a renewal bill 12 months later for twice what a new subscription costs. I never renew anything.

 

[joe4702]

G&A started sending me issues free. Its says "Courtesy of Natchez" on the label. So far, I've gotten about six issues.