.........
Why does a writer spend three or four paragraphs describing the gun when there's a huge color photo of the thing stretched out across two pages? And why are criticisms of the gun couched in euphemisms like, "it's not a target gun" (read, "the damn thing won't hit the broad side of a barn!")?
........The gun rags were always in the back pockets of the manufacturers. And if a company didn't advertise, their products weren't reviewed.
For you younger crowd, try getting in to this imaginary friend of Skeeter Skelton's in an era when even imaginary friends should mind their own business!......
Some of your questions are easy to answer. I used to write for several magazines, not about guns, but it was very similar in so many ways.
Writers will put together a story, with no idea which photos are going to be used. The story is supposed to be complete, even if there is barely any room for photos, and the photos that get printed are selected by an art director, not the writer, based on available space (which changes as the pages get laid out for printing).
Regarding:
......"why are criticisms of the gun couched in euphemisms like, "it's not a target gun"......
That's simple. It was a way to express your thoughts, without saying something was junk, although sometimes a product was so bad that the wording was clearer. Anyone who got used to this way of writing could immediately tell what the reviewer liked, or didn't. Hey, if someone has an "ugly nose", does anyone actually use the word "ugly"? If they're creative enough to write articles, reviews, reports, etc., they're most likely creative enough to express themselves, at least to people smart enough to catch onto this way of writing.
The magazines printed articles based on what their readers wanted to see, and the magazine tried to create a mixture of articles, so all the readers would find something they were interested in. The magazines concentrated on things that were new, at least until the internet re-defined the word "new". Most of the time, the manufacturers were people who were just involved in the hobby/sport as the people at the magazines, so it was usually a group effort.
Advertisers were usually more involved with the magazine, sending product samples for reviews, and helping support the magazine financially. Still, if the magazine thought something was interesting, or "news", they'd go out of their way to request a sample for doing a review.
