Gun Magazine's Are Disappearing From Our Newstands

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I don't think there is much of a market for gun magazines anymore. Most people get there info from message boards (for better or for worse) and you can pull up pictures and youtube clips of any gun you like anytime you want.
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But Time,Newsweek,US News,Sports Illustrated,etc.all have web sites and message boards,all are going strong circulation wise, and all can be found in your local drug store.But not gun mags.
How do you explain that?
To my its the dreaded PC.
Which is destroying what's left of America.
 
Not here,luckily. Walmart carries about 6-7 different gun mags, and probly 3-4 different hunting magazines. About the same for Winco.Not sure what any other stores carry around here though. never looked anywhere else.
 
Depends on area and what sells but not always. A local music store chain that went under had a huge newsrack with tons of gun mags. They used to store it under the gay porn area though and I'd occasionally find "Honcho", "Latin Inches", and "Mandate" sprinkled in with Guns and Ammo and Handguns and such.

When I was in the USN overseas, the XO of the shore command I was told was responsible for the lack of gun mags in the exchange for a long time even though they were eventually restored.

She said they were "violent".
 
"I haven't visited a newstand in approximately 3 years now, although I pass by them, and "media" sections in pharmacies and grocery stores, and see that, like always, they are loaded up with junk."

That, in a nut shell, explains why almost all print media, especially "news" papers" and "news" magazines are losing circulation; JUNKY, WATERED DOWN CONTENT trying to promote a fixed point of view!
 
Most guys get the subscription for the discount, and they deliver to your door.

I see Guns and Ammo on every shelf but my favorites like Guns and Handgunner are only at places like Barnes & Noble and the grocery store.
 
Gun magazines don't do much to hold people's attentions, even worse, they seem to be a caracture of themselves without even realizing it.

Who really cares about the 1013th new version of the 1911 or AR-15, or an in-depth report of the new Glock model that looks and operates exactly every other Glock model, or about the brand new cartridge that does everything exactly the same as a cartridge that has been around for 30-100 years.

I do like to peruse Shotgun News at Walmart once in awhile. Sometimes one of the two articles in that magazine is ok. I can't justify buying that magazine at the price they are asking considering that 90+% of the magazine are ads- they should be giving that one away for free.
 
Except for the occasional Shotgun News, I don't buy any gun mags. I don't buy mags for other sports I'm into (like skiing or flyfishing) as well. Like others have said - internet. I don't even get American Rifleman/Hunter although I'd get them for free with my NRA membership. Just not interested.
 
The grocery stores in the literate part of town, Barnes and Noble and Hastings are well stocked in central texas. The Mags actually prefer subscriptions as they get the money up front and then have a year or whatever to deliver the goods.

Somebody mentioned the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The gun magazines have held their own and even rebounded a bit during the last several reporting periods. All magazines took a big circulation hit in the late 90s early 2000s and the current figures really cant be compared very well with those from a couple of decades ago. Reading ain't very popular and the audit bureau has tightened up (alot) on what can be reported as paid or total circulation.
 
If you want more gun magazines at your local magazine store, start buying more. Its all about money. If people buy magazines they get shelf space, if not they use that space to display something that does sell.
 
This has been discussed many times before. Most people are chalking it up to stores stocking what sells. A select few are quite content to insist that it is something else.
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yep...most retail stores have only so much space and use that space for the things that sell and make money for them. Try and introduce a new product to a store and see how much shelf space it gets until it proves itself. It's all about the almighty dollar, not a conspiracy to rid the world of gun mags.

Years ago I grew up on gun and hunting mags. They were full of stories and info that pertained to the guns and the type of hunting that most average Americans were involved with and contained maybe a few classified ads in the back with an occasional cigarette ad in between the covers. Nowadays, there may be 10 pages of info in an eighty page rag with the rest dedicated to advertising. The guns and other gear are being reviewed by folk who get paid by the gun/gear companies to test their guns/gear and the hunts are by folk participating in canned hunts donated by guides and outfitters. No way the gun reviewer will trash a gun that it's manufacturer has been running 6 full page ads every month, and the hunter that sits in a blind for two days in front of the shelled corn put out by the outfitter claims after he shoots the tame deer, "man, that was a tough hunt!". I don't waste my money anymore.
 
It's like Gaming magazines.

The turn-around time on print for up-and-coming news has given way to the internet. If print magazines want to survive, they have to provide higher quality and features that you can't find on the internet.

And, truthfully, I'd rather read THR than most gun magazines. The personalities have a greater range than "enthusiastic gun reviewer," the pictures tend to be more interesting, and there's more of it.

Besides... can you imagine American Rifleman doing a story on "What gun for a zombie horde?"
 
I'm guessing it's a combination of factors.

1) Political correctness/liability concern within organizations.
2) Lack of demand for the magazines. This can probably be addressed by several factors:
2a) Preponderance of the same information available online, before the magazines become available.
2b) Higher cost of publishing and distribution, resulting in a higher magazine price.
2c) Relative lack of consistent quality in the magazines. Articles are mostly just ads these days in many of them, with only maybe 5-6 pages actually having original/useful content.
2d) Too many magazines to chose from (resulting in some of the above phenomena) resulting in people just saying, "no thanks".
3) Finally, people just order them and have them delivered in the mail if they get them regularly. The magazine companies see the same amount of profit.

But Time,Newsweek,US News,Sports Illustrated,etc.all have web sites and message boards,all are going strong circulation wise, and all can be found in your local drug store.But not gun mags.
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Time, Newsweek, US News, etc. are all liberal publications, for the most part. Liberals are stupid. :p

Kidding aside, there's a number of good reasons for that, I think.

And I believe Sports Illustrated has had some -significant- financial woes in the last 5 years. IIRC, they re-targeted towards the mid-teen market, and increased the 'swimsuit' issues/content significantly to try and compensate.

Also, those magazines not only have wider demographical interests, but they also have much more material to pull from. In all honesty, there's probably only enough actual content to fill a single (albiet, thick) gun magazine every month, but they get stretched out across a dozen or so, and they're all pretty thin compared to (say) People, which costs less than the gun rag.

And there is a never-ending stream of celebrity gossip and world news from which to pull from. You can miss several gun mags without missing anything (different issues cover the same political/social topics in serial, quite often it seems), but something like Time or US News actually does some fairly indepth analysis and reporting on things. You miss one, and you've missed a significant amount of news, if you don't really read the paper or watch TV.
 
I noticed that in most airports I have been in, the book/newspaper stands do carry most of the gun mags. I enjoy reading them on planes and getting dirty looks from the anti's sitting in the cattle car. So far, no grief, yet.
 
After the Dunblane massacre over here inn 1996, gun mags pretty much disappeared from newsagents, but thankfully, over time, they have crept back and are freely available including Guns and Ammo.

On a recent holiday to Orlando I had no problems buying Gun mags from places like ‘Borders’ and various Supermarkets. In fact I was spoilt for choice!
 
"libpervert celebrities who are better off suffering from AIDS" --Rachen

Rachen, that is completely uncalled for. I noticed you also said this on another thread: "I would care less if all those libpervert celebrities get AIDS from their colorful lifestyles." That is totally inappropriate, hateful, misanthropic and quite frankly, disgusting. Lighten up with the hate speech.
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OK I promise not to say stuff like that again.

It's just that I am exposed to so much of that "culture" where I live, and finds it so disgusting.
 
there hasn't been any mags missing here on any of the store shelves that I go to neither but like some of the other folks said it probably does have a lot to do with the explosion of the internet .
 
I have always read American Rifleman and Muzzleblasts while sitting on the subway, and guess what?, to this day, I haven't got one dirty look from anybody. Actually, quite many people actually started conversations with me, and I find these times the best opportunity to lecture them about responsible gun ownership and the tradition of the American sportsman. Several times, these people turn out to be fellow gunnies:D But other times, people, although they are not antis, become confused about why I like guns so much...............................................................And thats when I take the time to explain to them ALL the issues surrounding gun ownership, and how our safety and well being are greatly enhanced with them if they are possessed, or sometimes, used in a proper way.

Promoting and advocating the 2nd Amendment is not a job or a hobby. It is what I do on a regular basis. Heck, I do it without even being aware of it most of the time.:)
 
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