F&S and Outdoor Life Going Digital

JJWise

Twelve Pointer
A few months ago I emailed Field & Stream customer service because I hadn’t received a copy of the magazine in quite a while. They informed me that both F&S and Outdoor Life had been bought out and the new owners were crunching the numbers trying to decide how to move forward.

Well, this morning I got the email I’d been expecting. Both magazines are going 100% digital and are accessed online. And while I’m glad they’re going to be available to read again, I can’t say I’m excited to be reading them on a screen.
 

Moose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
I had OL on my kindle and over a year ago they stopped publication. Lots of info available on line but those magazines broadened my perspective and telling me about hunting and fishing opportunities that I might never been aware of.
Online stuff maybe ok but I still enjoy flipping through a magazines now and then. Heck Sunday Mornings sitting on the back porch with a coffee and the Sunday paper was great times. I miss that as well. I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper. Electronics is fine but I'm more relaxed when I go old school with papers books and magazines.
 

JJWise

Twelve Pointer
I'm sure they think they know what they are doing.

Mike
I get the feeling that this is a way for them to just slowly cease production of the magazines altogether and move to a more social media focused company, similar to what you see from MeatEater. I work in IT so I have no fundamental issue with electronic copies, but it’s not as satisfying to me.
 

6mm250

Eight Pointer
I get the feeling that this is a way for them to just slowly cease production of the magazines altogether and move to a more social media focused company, similar to what you see from MeatEater. I work in IT so I have no fundamental issue with electronic copies, but it’s not as satisfying to me.

One of my all time favorite magazine is Handloader. I bought it off the news stand for years , then I decided to get an E-subscription. I didn't like the E version one little bit , it couldn't run out fast enough for me , then I went to a print subscription.
But then I'm a kinda old guy , I'd just rather have a hard copy.
I suspect these magazines going totally online will lose some older people but they will probably gain back with more new , younger subscribers.

Mike
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
One of my all time favorite magazine is Handloader. I bought it off the news stand for years , then I decided to get an E-subscription. I didn't like the E version one little bit , it couldn't run out fast enough for me , then I went to a print subscription.
But then I'm a kinda old guy , I'd just rather have a hard copy.
I suspect these magazines going totally online will lose some older people but they will probably gain back with more new , younger subscribers.

Mike


I just switched to a e-subscription for it and the others (they running a special),,,, will see if I can stand it
 

specialk

Twelve Pointer
As a young teenager i remember getting both in the mail.....like xmas every month...1 if my favs was "taps tips"....he was a writer (tapley)
and had a page of outdoor tips that i loved to read....
 

UpATree

Ten Pointer
Contributor
About eight years ago when I was 55, my mom bought a subscription to OL as a Christmas gift to my son. She thought it was more about camping, and he is an Eagle Scout. I started reading it and thinking, "dang, hunting might be fun", even though I knew nothing about it. So I spent the next year learning, buying a rifle and gear and getting ready for the season. I found this forum and the guys on here were great at answering my newbie questions. And one evening on gamelands, I managed to take down a little buck. I was hooked and I've been at it ever since.
 

Downeast

Twelve Pointer
The only mag I get now is the NRA American Rifleman because I am a lifetime member and the DU magazine. I like to handload rifle cartridge's so I search through a bunch of online forums and cut and paste various articles, loads, and comments, print them out and put them in 3 ring binders by caliber. Basically I create my own bound handloading magazine that I can pull off the shelf in an instant without trying to get back online and search for something that I read months ago. I have a permanent "hardbound" reference. ;)
 

Lakeview Bear

Ten Pointer
Contributor
I don't browse through e mags like I would a hard copy. I don't know why but I read what I want, usually something specific, and get out. A hard copy you flip through read a paragraph or two and if it doesn't grab you move on, but most of the time you read something you would never have read before.
 

bag12day

Six Pointer
Contributor
I can honestly say as a teenager and young adult I would read articles even if they didn't grab me just to "see" things I never thought I would experience. I would read articles on walleye fishing event though I never saw one til I went on a fly in fishing trip to NW Ontario. Our entire group My dad, brother his son, me and my son had never caught one but some of those things came back to me. Heck growing up in central NC I never had caught a trout until I was in college and went on a backpack trip to the mtns with my now wife of 32 years but alot of that reading helped. Sorry to see it go digital only for sure, fond memories of sitting around the hunting club leafin through issues from before I was born.
 

JJWise

Twelve Pointer
About eight years ago when I was 55, my mom bought a subscription to OL as a Christmas gift to my son. She thought it was more about camping, and he is an Eagle Scout. I started reading it and thinking, "dang, hunting might be fun", even though I knew nothing about it. So I spent the next year learning, buying a rifle and gear and getting ready for the season. I found this forum and the guys on here were great at answering my newbie questions. And one evening on gamelands, I managed to take down a little buck. I was hooked and I've been at it ever since.
I had a similar start. No one in my family really hunted except my grandpa who wasn’t in good enough shape to teach me by the time I was old enough to go. I always wanted to but had no way of going. When I was probably 10 or 11 I’d buy F&S at a bookstore every month and hide it from my parents (they despised hunting). I learned a lot from those magazines and articles. And as soon as I could drive at 16 I was out every weekend hunting and have been since.
 

PPosey

Twelve Pointer
I ate them up as a kid, actually was a crappy reader when I was a spud, hated to read. Then one day while dad was getting a haircut I was 8 or so, I started reading OL or F&S at the barbers. Didnt want to leave the mag there when it was time to go. Dad subscribed to them both for me as well as Fur Fish and Game and my reading level shot through the roof on a few months. Kept them all, color coded them by topic for ones that I really liked an article in. Had quite the library going.
 

agsnchunt

Old Mossy Horns
I don't browse through e mags like I would a hard copy. I don't know why but I read what I want, usually something specific, and get out. A hard copy you flip through read a paragraph or two and if it doesn't grab you move on, but most of the time you read something you would never have read before.

the digital magazine concept really doesn't work for me. I'm happy to flip through a paper mag, but there are so few these days with quality content. I only subscribe to 2 - the NC Wildlife magazine and The Surfers Journal.
 

Downeast

Twelve Pointer
Subscriptions should have been free many years ago. When you look at all the ads in those mags vs the cost to print and ship them the price of a subscription had to have been nearly 100% profit.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
well i guess i have the last F&S "real magazine" a look back at the history of the mag. Kind of a "best of" issue.
Before specialized interest outdoor mags these two were a staple. Then they became too general for me but in the final years I enjoyed them more from time to time.
But folks like me are why they cant print- I would look at the on line version from the library.
 
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