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.
Recent comments