Got a letter in today's mail from some law firm regarding F+W Media filing Chapter 11. Looks like they will be selling off assets, which I assume includes Trapper & Predator Caller magazine. Anyone else hear anything about this? Nice to have the trapping magazines we have, would be a bummer to lose one.

Will wait to renew mine I guess. But T&PC has gone down hill fast the the few years when they went to small copy size. Looks like FFG and Trapper Post will be the only big ones.

Good info. I was going to subscribe to T&PC, think I'll wait.

I wonder when they will cut me off then for getting there mag. Mr Ed you are so right on them going down hill too bad. Need to wait and see what will come of it I also get Trapper post and FFG

I hung on a long time waiting for them to improve or get half way back to where they once were, never happened so I quit even getting the mag years ago.

Sounds like F+W has been in trouble for quite some time. Sad to see print publications dying. Not everyone likes, or can get, internet based publications.

From an online news article -

The publisher’s attempt to build an ecommerce business was cited by current company management as a major mistake. That should serve as a warning for any publisher that thinks it can compete with Amazon.

F+W’s court filing shows debt of $105.2 million and $2.5 million in available cash

Depending upon price and value this may be an opportunity for new and better ownership then the end of an era. I would think that a trapping based magazine during our low industry revenue times may be a decent deal to purchase for someone with the needed skills to own, publish, edit and manage a print media organ.

Bryce

Wonder what some of the folks we know would say, those who have taken on a paper magazine (Sullivan, Eickson, etc.)

Or a chance for Trapper's Post to be even better!

Seems like with low fur prices, it would be difficult to sell advertising especially in a publication that is trying to revive itself.

Advertising rates are what pays for publications. Subscriptions are a secondary source of income.

2X. Whatever happened to Trappers World?

I stopped renewing a couple years ago because it seemed like they recycled articles and none of them had much meat. Simply fluff.

I absolutely loved The Trapper when Tom Krause was the editor. He was the finest of people that America ever produced. For those who want an insider gossip on that publication after Mr. Krause left it, in the following years, I actually applied to be editor. I provided a detailed white paper on what that magazine needed and what was required to be done. What I received in return was told that I was one of the top applicants, but they gave the job to someone else, who I will not say the name of.
I will say though that The Trapper changed in many ways after that, as they stole all of my ideas and implemented them. The publisher and editor though did not have "people" attributes in being able to connect with readers, and that is what was the downfall of that magazine. Tom Krause used to have so many articles in that magazine that it was like a catalog when it came.
After that experience I never had anything to do with the publishers and honestly, I could not be more pleased that after they stole from me that they are now going bankrupt.

One of the greatest thrills as a child was to read Tom Krause, Parker Dozhier and Major Boddicker every month. They modernized trapping from the Fur Fish Game days of the eastern trappers in Daily and Hawbaker. Before that you rarely heard of western trapping. I was just thinking of Mr. Krause today as the Platte River is flooding in his article, The Flat Platte Rat.
Those people gave and others took. Now it has all evened out.

Its too bad! That was the first all trapping publication in my lifetime.

The Flat Platte Rat and Boogie Mink and Blunder Sets. Yes Mr. Krause did a great job. The downfall we had as an organization was that the people in Florida managing the subscriptions either didn’t know or care how to relate to Trappers. The renewal mixups ran us off.

I never understood why companies advertise less when fur prices are low. When fur prices are high I have no need to advertise as it is hard to keep up with demand. F & W Media has many more magazines then Trapper & Predator Caller. Troubling times I have done business with the Trapper and Predator Caller for over 40 years.

Anyone have any idea what T&PC's circulation is?

I wonder how much it's worth. So I'm crazy in a way and love to run numbers on things. Just went through my latest issue and counted all of the ads by type, then screened that through their most recent media kit I could find with ad prices. I was actually surprised, came up with a total of around $38k in ad revenue for the one issue. There were 5 feature articles, which I'm wild-a$$ guessing cost around $400 each, say a few hundred for the 5 regular columns, and the editor's call, looking at less than $5k to pay writers. The ad department and editing/formatting may cost a couple grand??? Big question I'm clueless on is whether the subscriptions cover the cost of printing and shipping the magazine. If not, that would cut into the ad revenue a fair amount. Still, $380k per year is a big number (at least to me!).

The trend toward less content and more ads in the magazine over the years has no doubt hurt the circulation, as well as having non-trappers answering the phones etc. Plus, Trapper's Post has been a great alternative for a lot of folks. To be successful, I think one would have to get back to where the magazine was 20-30 years ago (greater content/ad ratio, all trapping, more stories etc). Still, seems like there's some potential there.

Articles not costing 400 a article, maybe half that.

EVERYONE begged them for years to 'get back to where they started from' and were ignored thus Trappers Post
came out looking like what TPC started out as. Everyone switched over to the new magazine that looked like the
old magazine and doubt now you could lure everyone back. Plus not that many writing trapping articles anymore,
me included!