Predator mags: the good and the craptacular

borrowed time

borrowed time

New member
So, i have been buying some predator hunting magazines over the years including the old Varmint Masters (still have a ball cap from them), Predator Nation, and occassionally a Predator Extreme.

Now Predator Nation i find to be a very superior, well written, and informative magazine that i wish was 6 issues a year if it could keep up the quality.

Predator Extreme i find to be nothing but a bi-monthy "catalogue" of gear and guns with two or maybe three articles that are merely put in as afterthoughts, and they charge you $6 for the privelge of "window-shopping" their cata... i mean magazine.

It seems to be a trend of outdoor mags these days to be doing mostly guns and gear reviews (and NEVER giving a BAD review)and very little in the way of teaching techniques and methods.

Are todays magazines getting big bucks sponsoring by these manufaturing companies to put their products in our faces to increase sales? if so, what do you think the ratio is between what the mag/s take in from us readers and what they take in from the manufacturers in actual advertising AND them paying for advertising masquerading as gear reviews?

Anyone know anything regarding the next Predator Nation? Are they gonna go bi-monthy? are they at least still being made once per year?

Thanks!
 
Originally Posted By: Jack RobertsAds take in a lot more money than subscriptions. That's why there are no critical articles.

Jack

Correct. Subscriptions don't pay the bills, ads do. And unfortunately like it or not, bad reviews are bad business, that does not mean they are paid for. The publication I work for has an annual Gear Review full of products we actually field test and the awards are based on performance and nothing else (half the products we review aren't even advertisers with us) if the item was sub-standard they just don't make the magazine.

I do however agree, there is myriad magazines that are essentially catalogs, it's a fine line that some publications cross. A paid positive review, by definition, is an ad so most out there are worthless for actual info or insight. I get a ton of mags and have to cherry pick the good articles, then send them to the troops, the rest isn't worth reading
 
Originally Posted By: Jack RobertsAds take in a lot more money than subscriptions. That's why there are no critical articles.

Jack

Isn't that the truth. I just read a '10 winch shoot out'. They tested 10 winch's all around the same price and size. If I remember right it was all around 8-9 k lb winch's. They had a bunch of tests and criteria. 3 were eliminated right of the start because they didn't work out of the box. Other tests eliminated more. When it came down to the final test, a basic destruction pull, Warn disintegrated, Super Winch and Engo stalled before destruction. Each stage was given points for the final' winner' . Even though Warn disintegrated it won the final nod because basically it scored higher in the rating based on how it was packed for shipping. Now if I didn't know better I'd almost wager that Warn was the major sponsor of that wright up.
 
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