by If you grew up in a certain era and had your hair cut at a barber shop, there were always a pile of old Field & Stream magazines to read while you waited.
It featured writers like Warren Page talking about rifles, Bob Brister about shotgunning, and A. J. McClane on fishing. It would have humorous essay by Ed Zern with his Exit Laughing column. It had Tap’s Tips from H. G. Tapply which had all sorts of useful tips and tricks. And could you have ever come across an outdoor writer with a better name than Ted Trueblood? Even now they have David Petzel and Phillip Bourjilly as shooting editors.
I received an email dated April 27th from Colin Kearns who is the current editor. He announced that they were going to a 100% digital format along with their sister publication Outdoor Life.
I also shared that I wasn’t entirely sure what the next phase of Field & Stream’s legacy—the beginning of the next 125 years, if you will—would look like.
Well, now I do. And I’m excited to share this news with you: Field & Stream is going to be a digital magazine.
You might be wondering: What does a “digital magazine” mean? Great question. For starters, instead of having issues delivered to your mailbox, they’ll conveniently come to where you already consume so much F&S content every day—to your phone, tablet, or computer. A digital edition also lends itself to a sleeker and more interactive design than a print magazine ever could, opening the door to video, audio, animation, and other dynamic add-ons that will enhance your experience with the magazine.
At the risk of sounding like a “But wait, there’s more!” infomercial spokesman—there is, in fact, more.
With your digital subscription to Field & Stream, you’ll get access to the F&S archives where you can enjoy many of the best and most famous stories from the history of the magazine. All F&S subscribers will also get a bonus subscription to the all-new digital edition of Outdoor Life magazine.
It also appears that instead of being a monthly magazine, the publishing format will be that of a quarterly. I guess that leaves Sports Afield of the old big three “hook and bullet” magazines that will still be published in a print edition. Even then, Sports Afield closed and then was reopened by Field Sports Publishing who also owns Safari Press. It is strictly a big-game hunting magazine now.
I know bytes, bits, and pixels are a lot cheaper to produce than laying out a paper magazine. Still, there is a feeling you get from actually holding something printed on paper you just don’t get from a digital edition. I guess at my age nostalgia is an ever present condition.