I have subscribed to this magazines since I think they started out and have seen a great improvement over the last couple of years.

Now they are offering a one week online subscription for a buck so that you can check them out and decide if it is worth the money.

http://www.usconcealedcarry.com/public/714.cfm

I subscribe to the hard copy, which also gives me access to the online web site. The magazine still has room for improvement, but has gotten a lot better. In fact I almost canceled my subscription in the beginning, but now feel it is worth it.

For some reason or other, I've been getting the mag free for a few months.

It's not bad. It's not great -- and it really could use a good, pro writer writing regularly for it (and, yeah, I'm a good pro writer) -- but it's not bad.

Like I said, it has improved over time and hopefully will age and get better, but I don't think it is all that well know.

Figured I would post their offer here and it would get some good exposure.

Joel, I know they are looking for articles and profiles on shooting or self defense, but you know that if you have been getting the rag. You can only add to them if you contact them and maybe submit some things. I thought they originated out of Wisconsin, so that is close to home. I also e-mailed them with a link to my post of their $1 for 1 week offer, we will see if they respond.

I seem to remember an article on their samples page with a familiar name on it.

Note: It is a good deal, but you HAVE to cancel by the end of the 7 days or your card wil be billed. They're VERY up front about it.

JDR loaned me an issue a while back and it had some good stuff in it. I don't really need the profiles of a permit holder or the "why did you get a permit" stuff. I get a lot of that right here.

My other magazine subscriptions are ~$20 including a free gift subscription to someone else. Granted, that's from a major publisher that can absorb the loss and is offset by major ad revenue. But with shooting, holsters, gear, ammo, and etc, adding ~$70 to my carry expenses is hard to justify all at once.

Options:
$69 a year: 8 issues a year, complete archive access online
$6.97 / month complete archive online access, 8 issues a year
$39 / Year Hard copy subscription only. (NO internet access)

What would be REALLY handy is splitting a subscription.

Personally, I've thought about joining for 8 months of the year (~$56) or trying to talk them in to an online only membership of $30 a year.

Yup. I submitted a query, and then an article to them; they decided not to use it, and it ended up on my LiveJournal or website. A year or two later, they noticed it there, and asked if they could use it as a "Tip of the Week."

If they ever do get to the point where they pay professional rates, I'd be happy to write for them.

I think they may fail to understand the economics of magazine publishing, or simply lack the capital to implement a sensible strategy: offer a quality product at a low price, and the ads will make the money.

Right now, I imagine they have a hard time building circulation at $69 a year, and a hard time selling ads with such low circulation.

I looked at it but at 69 it is a non starter. Guns, other mags and websites have very useful information for a more reasonable cost.

Oh, sure. It's the classic failure mode. "My dad has a barn; let's put on a show." Set subscription prices to break even on an optimistic estimate of the number of subscriptions you'll get, and ads are gravy.

It almost never works. It's not just subscriptions that are needed, but renewals. That's why there's such cheap intro prices for Time and Newsweek, say -- they've got to keep their subscriber base up to get the ad buys, and to have a chance at good renewal rates.

The key to making it work is making the magazine big enough and good enough that enough folks will part with their beer money in order to be able to read it, and that requires a lot more writing, and a lot better writing, than they've gotten (or are likely to get), and that assumes that the would-be subscribers care enough about how well-written a mag would be to pay extra money anyway.

Not terribly likely.

If they can't even make serious penetration among a group like the permit holders that hang out here, how are they going to expand to the point where they become attractive to advertisers?

I wish them well, really -- but it's not like this sort of thing hasn't been tried and failed to work before.

When I renewed I chose to forgo the internet stuff. In the first year I think I was on there once or twice due to no time. The mag only price was easier to deal with. And its the only gun mag (not counting NRA) that I pay for.

Yes, some of the writing needs help but it something I can read when all the computers are in use around here.

Steelheart