Via Ted Williams’ blog we discovered this news item; longtime outdoor humor writer Patrick McManus is ending his 28 year run at Outdoor Life magazine, a noteworthy occasion – though perhaps not for the reasons you might think.
McManus wrote Outdoor Life’s humor column for nearly three decades, but the magazine terminated his contract, and according to McManus, it did so for budget reasons:
Being among the most highly paid contributors apparently factored into the editor’s decision to terminate McManus, a top name in outdoor humor across the country. The top-selling writer has more than two million of his 18 books in print.“The magazines are just running out of cash,” he said last week. “We parted on good terms.”
Our question is this; is this a signe the outdoor magazines are really feeling the pinch of a bad economy and an ongoing shift to Internet properties, or was McManus simply past his expiration date?
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for signs of the Outdoor Magazine Apocalypse, but in the meantime, I’ll say this: McManus’ humor has been labeled by some as hokey, but I got a kick out of it, and will probably never forget McManu’s gold-plated image of an unconscious deer waking up and pedaling his youthful character’s bicycle down a mountain.
That’s priceless shit.
The larger picture? Outdoor media and fly fishing are reaching a crossroads – many high-profile fly fishing “celebrities” and other leading names are aging towards some kind of retirement (ahem).
Because nature hates a vacuum, new faces will likely take their place, though it’s unclear who those new faces might be (though I have a few ideas, and not all of them make me happy).
Agree? Disagree?
See you in philosophical media discussions, Tom Chandler.
Powered by ScribeFire.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Tom,
We certainly are of like mind. I remember that story about the deer as being one of the funniest things I have read during my life.
Lee Murdock(Quote)
With the retirement of Carmichel and Gibbs it looks like they are shooting for a complete revamp. Makes my upcoming decision on whether to renew fairly easy since McManus was one of the few things to look forward to each month. Bug Ugly(Quote)
The small local newspapers here on the Peninsula are all free. They carry one or two local stories and a smattering of AP reports. They’re also loaded with ads, mostly from local businesses. Lately I’ve seen newspaper employees walking up and down the train station platforms and any place else a few people might gather, trying to thrust a copy of their paper into the hands of everyone they pass. I guess they’re trying to keep their numbers up. I think that most of the mags that survive will end up doing the same thing – dropping or eliminating the purchase price and loading up with even more ads, and asking any place that carries sporting goods for a spot on the counter.
I know of only one or two guys who get copies of the national fishing mags, and those were gift subscriptions. Better than a “Reel Men Fish Bamboo” ball cap, but not by much. SMJ(Quote)
Tom,
Are we approaching a “crossroads” or a quagmire?
I think I am attempting to come into the outdoor magazine writing world at an “interesting” time. I read your comments over at the F&S Fly Talk blog and I appreciate your view as a writing professional on the cutting (bleeding?) edge of this brave new world.
When I look at certain outdoor magazines I am beginning to wonder, though, are the ads coming to the magazines that “they find value in” or do the ads determine what we wannabe writers must mention in order to get published; i.e. endorsements disguised as content.
I don’t disagree with your comment to me about the so-called “clutter.” But I can still scan the bloated magazine rack faster than I can find quality blog sites like yours and KB’s on the internet. I guess I should have called it an “overwhelming palette of choice.”
I certainly have tremendous respect for anyone attempting to make a living by the written word, whether in ink on paper or electrons flying across the tubes of the internets. A. Wannabe Travelwriter(Quote)
Hokey? Absolutely! But with Rancid Crabtree and Retch Sweeney, you can’t help but laugh. We checked quite a few of his audio books out of the local library to play in the car as we travel – great way to kill some time.
I have never been much of a subscriber to fishing mags (just four magazine titles over about ten years), so I don’t know many of the “celebrities” of magazines, and it really doesn’t matter to me what might happen to them (nothing personal to those who make a living that way).
I mostly read (past tense) print mags for the articles on places to fish. But I think the internet is much better for that because you can get updated information and it’s pretty easy to have direct correspondence with people willing to help you out with questions, etc. I’ve even fished with a number of people I’ve met online because they were writing about rivers I wanted to fish.
I don’t know how easy that is/was to do with magazine article authors. (I’ve never tried contacting one.) Online friendships are probably a lot easier than something print based. There are some great people out there I try to keep in contact with through their blog and them writing on my blog.
Plus you don’t have to wait for articles to come out that have things that interest you. I’m pretty much only a trout fisherman, and I got tired of waiting for Fly Fisherman to come out with trout articles instead of all the saltwater pieces. I can find a lot more content about fishing information for my local area online than I ever could in a magazine.
Besides looking for specific things, there are plenty of interesting things online to stumble across, and plenty of stuff to avoid (I write some of it myself, so I definitely know what to avoid). But for me that looking around is half the fun–I don’t mind running into some junk to find a few nuggets.
Online things are free (at least the stuff my tightwad self looks at). Most blogs are ad -free. I get a lot of information from government and university research (some of those reports have incredibly detailed pieces of info tucked away about trout size, density, maps, creek names, etc.). Those are always “free” (glad my tax dollars are going to something useful for a change).
For those who don’t publish daily/regularly, RSS has been a real boon for my reading because I don’t have to keep checking a site to see if something new has been posted. And I can have it delivered to me if I want.
Sorry Tom, now I’ve “cluttered” your post with something longer than your original. cutthroat stalker(Quote)
McManus? One of my dad’s all-time faves. He taught me to enjoy Patrick’s writings too, though I don’t indulge frequently. Whether deer, hunting dog or bass, Patrick always had a way to make you smile about the situation. He also has some of the most creative “people names” I’ve ever seen.
I don’t subscribe to any outdoors mags (Chess Life doesn’t count, I guess), and still I’ll miss him… The Chile Doctor(Quote)
Mr. Cutthroat Stalker nailed the big reason why magazines–not just the outdoor ones–have been doing a steady backslide for years: anything you want to read about, any time you want to read, is available on the internet.
In fact, some on-line magazines actually pay more per word than even the best known outdoor print magazines. This is a purging period in the magazine world. Niche magazines, writers without the endurance to stay in the race…Many will not survive. But I believe both the readers and the print magazine industry will better for it. Bob Butz(Quote)
People still read? The era of America’s dumbest generation grows nigh. Don(Quote)
Don: I don’t think “dumbest” applies. I think “oversaturated” with media channels probably does. Tom Chandler(Quote)
THE FIRST STORY I READ BY MR. MCMANUS (YAR,YAR,YAR) SORRY, HAD TO
THROW THAT IN, I JUST LOVE HIM. ANYWAY, IT WAS ABOUT HIM HELPING
CHANGE A TIRE WITH HIS FATHER, I HAVE NEVER LAUGHED SO HARD IN MY
LIFE, I DON’T REMEMBER WHERE I WAS BUT I KNOW I PEED MY PANTS AND
MY STOMACH HURT FOR A WEEK. I DROVE EVERYONE CRAZY TRYING TO GET
THEM TO READ THE STORY, THE REASON I AM WRITING HERE IS BECAUSE I
WOULD GIVE ANYTHING TO HAVE A COPY OF THAT STORY AGAIN, I AM
TALKING 30 YEARS AGO AT LEAST, I OWN 3 OF HIS BOOKS, AND NONE OF THEM
HAVE THIS STORY IN THEM. I AM BEGGING ANYONE THAT MAY HAVE A COPY
OF THIS TO LET ME KNOW. THANK YOU SHARON(Quote)