1.) Swamp Fox - 04/05/2013

What are your favorites, and least favorites? Why?

If you were king, what would magazines do differently from what they do now?

Is there a magazine or special publication (or even a single article) that you remember as being OUTSTANDING, and why was that?

I have to say that the recent [I]Panfish[/I] special edition from In-Fisherman is EXCELLENT, and beat the pants off most of the stuff I've seen on the newstands for a long time (though I might be missing a bunch of good stuff just because I'm not looking in the right places).

On the other end of the spectrum, there was a recent article in one of the Game&Fish mags (probably NC or SC) on springtime bass lures that was so excruciatingly basic that the only thing that kept me awake was being bludgeoned by how poorly it was organized. Just when I thought I was done reading about crankbaits and had moved on to spinnerbaits, up popped a lost, lonely and wandering paragraph about cranks again!

I believe it was in the same issue where a different author promised early on in his own article to divulge how the many variables of lure selection could be boiled down to yield a "surprisingly simple method for choosing what to throw" (or words to that effect). He then either forgot to do that, or he lied to me. In any event, I never did come across the secret in his article. I wondered if the editor was clairvoyant (because I'm not), or if he or she was better at smoke signals than I, or if this just slipped past.

I like to pick up a magazine and feel I learned something new, something I probably wouldn't have gotten elsewhere or on my own, or I like to be entertained by a good essay or humor writer. Next comes good travel or adventure or "How I got the big one" stuff, where I'm able to be just as interested in the author and feeling like I'm tagging along with him as I am in the details. If I can't make that connection, a lot of those types of articles make my eyes glaze over. I like some outdoor fiction, too, though, not very many places publish it.

What say you?

2.) DParker - 04/05/2013

I used to read In-Fisherman and watch their show on T.V. avidly, though I haven't consumed either in several years (simply because of a lack of time and the substantially declining proportion of my leisure time devoted to fishing...sadly). But assuming their quality is roughly equivalent to what it was back then I'm going to have to not only agree with you, but say that it is the ONLY outdoors publication that I know of that I think is worth bothering with. I used to subscribe to Field & Stream as well, and enjoyed it for a while...but it has become so much of a Fudd rag that I can't stand it anymore. Most others are just tools of their advertisers.

As for the rudimentary content of some articles, I not only don't fault a magazine for that I actually like the fact that they continue to devote at least some space to appealing to and helping out people who are new to whatever topic is being covered. What would probably be helpful would be if the publishers would adopt a system of labeling their articles with the level of experience that the piece is geared toward. That would allow beginners to head right to the stuff that they need starting out, and would allow the more experienced reader to easily know what to skip.

3.) Swamp Fox - 04/05/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;4814]
On the other end of the spectrum, there was a recent article in one of the Game&Fish mags (probably NC or SC) on springtime bass lures that was so excruciatingly basic that the only thing that kept me awake was being bludgeoned by how poorly it was organized. Just when I thought I was done reading about crankbaits and had moved on to spinnerbaits, up popped a lost, lonely and wandering paragraph about cranks again!

[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=DParker;4816]As for the rudimentary content of some articles, I not only don't fault a magazine for that I actually like the fact that they continue to devote at least some space to appealing to and helping out people who are new to whatever topic is being covered. What would probably be helpful would be if the publishers would adopt a system of labeling their articles with the level of experience that the piece is geared toward. That would allow beginners to head right to the stuff that they need starting out, and would allow the more experienced reader to easily know what to skip.[/QUOTE]


That is an EXCELLENT idea! Even better if they could highlight/color code down the outside edge of the page so when you're flipping through the magazine in the grocery store wondering if you should spend the six bucks, you could make a quick decision.

I hate reading half the magazine at the sales rack just trying to decide if I should take it home. I used to get run out of the dime store for doing that with comic books when I was a kid, LOL. (Though why Barnes and Noble lets you do it beats me...No wonder you can't ever find a clerk to help you...no sales revenue to pay them :re:)

I agree magazines should contain some beginner material, and I felt a little weird typing what I did, knowing that we all have to start somewhere (readers [I]and[/I] writers). But if it were me, some stuff would be chopped into sidebar material instead of trying to make a whole "article" out of it. Or, refer people to the website for basic material. Some magazines (especially the Fudd-rags, LOL) seem to like to do that all the time with the more interesting stuff, which drives me nuts.

If I'm reading a magazine, it's not likely I'm near a computer. It absolutely kills me to be referred to a website to "see more pictures" or get more information. Just publish it, already! I'm right here reading your damn magazine!

Don't ask me why the basic stuff should be sluffed off to the website and not the detail/interesting stuff. I'm not sure I can justify it. That's just what I want. :wink

4.) DParker - 04/05/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;4819]Even better if they could highlight/color code down the outside edge of the page so when you're flipping through the magazine in the grocery store wondering if you should spend the [COLOR=#ff0000][I][B]six bucks[/B][/I][/COLOR], you could make a quick decision.[/QUOTE]

I think that right there would make my decision for me. :wink

5.) bluecat - 04/05/2013

I think those magazines should pay me to read them. After all, they are 95% advertisements. You can't get on objective opinion on gear because you know that the gear manufacturers are paying for space in their magazines. I just don't get lured in to "10 Secrets you need to know to bag a trophy" like I used to.

I pretty much hate them all. Good reading on airplanes though. Better than Sky Mall where I can order a lifesize Bigfoot statuary for my patio for around 1,000.

6.) Go Bucks - 04/05/2013

I find Bowhunter very good from a content standpoint and it comes with the IBO membership. very detailed strategies and such that dwarf the advertisements. The others I have read are all ads, hero worship, and other fluff.

7.) XJCraver - 04/05/2013

[B]Fur Fish and Game[/B] is the only one I read anymore. And even they have [I]almost[/I] got to the point of too many advertisements / not enough content. Mags were definitely better when I was a kid...

In the last ~10 years, I've gotten way better / timely tips, tricks, and "secrets" from sites like this one. When you can go to any game-specific or equipment-specific forum, register, and use the search function to find a bunch of different answers to the questions you may have, in 10 minutes or so, then what is the point of the print magazines? Except to sell me something on EVERY page.

8.) Swamp Fox - 04/05/2013

I don't mind ads too much until it gets to the "women's magazine" level. 90% ads and 10% I-don't-even-wanna-know.

Every once in a while I see something from some podunk company no one's ever heard of that looks interesting.

But I'm not saying I have subscriptions to the worst offenders, either.

++++

Question: Who does the best reviews of gear (archery or otherwise)? I think we all know unhelpful reviews when we see them.

9.) Swamp Fox - 04/05/2013

Joe, I pick up a copy of FF&G every once in a while, because you find stuff in there that you don't find everywhere else. I agree with you they've slipped a bunch, though.

10.) Hunter - 04/05/2013

I like "Deer & Deer Hunting" as it seems to lean a little more to the scientific (for lack of a better word) side of deer management and deer behavior.

11.) Deerminator - 04/05/2013

Basically they suck. Same stuff over and over and more advertisements than content.
I hardly watch any hunt'n or fish'n TV shows.
But I do like the Campbells outdoor challenge bowfishing when Mike and the team are out there.

12.) Savage_M - 04/06/2013

Fur-Fish and Game is an excellent magazine. My dad had a stack of those suckers 3 feet deep from him and my Grandfather. I read them all cover to cover. They used to have interesting fictional short stories. Also, a guy that I guided a couple years ago gave me a Jack O Connor best of book. That man was a writer.

13.) Ventilator - 04/08/2013

I suscribe to Petersons Bowhunter and have for the last 10 years or so. I just like to have at least one hunting mag lying around to read occasionally. Mostly in the off season. I do get agitated when i get a flimsy two month issue with nothing but crap in it. Its like they fired all the writers for those two months.

My grandfather used to get FFG. Ive read hundreds of issues over the years. The last one i read wasnt near the quality of the older ones. I think thats mostly the case nowadays with the internet. Those mags charge almost more than tv to have a full page ad. Mostly a rip off to the companies in my opinion.