Randall's Adventure & Training Survival Magazine

Very intriguing idea Jeff. If you could keep it real, it would be very interesting and valuable.

Two questions?

1) How much market support is there for such a relatively focused product? Sure there are a couple dozen folks here who are interested, but how much of a market really exists?

2) How many issues per year? And how long does this go? Most basic survival techniques will be covered in a few dozen articles. How many times can you publish an article on debris huts? There are probably may more esoteric subjects that could be covered--"Namibian mussels as survival food? What you don't know about red tide can kill you."--but would these be sufficient to sustain said market base?

I see this as needing a broad range of topics to be sustainable: survival techniques story, a travel column, some esoteric knowledge, maybe a 'how-to' column, and then some gear reviews. A historical column could fill it out to: "Mallory's Mistakes". Of course there would be killer editorials.

Sounds like a great project, but it seems like it would be tough to sustain. Sign me up.
 
considering how long Backwoods has been in publication without going stale or selling out like Mother Earth News, I think Jeff & Co will be able to have a pretty good run.
I suspect this will be a bi-monthly or quarterly, which will give all parties concerned time to keep up with all their other projects (like testing and training)
Like many have said - I'm looking forward to the first issue and really hope this takes off well.
 
Rotte said:
Very intriguing idea Jeff. If you could keep it real, it would be very interesting and valuable.

Two questions?

1) How much market support is there for such a relatively focused product? Sure there are a couple dozen folks here who are interested, but how much of a market really exists?

2) How many issues per year? And how long does this go? Most basic survival techniques will be covered in a few dozen articles. How many times can you publish an article on debris huts? There are probably may more esoteric subjects that could be covered--"Namibian mussels as survival food? What you don't know about red tide can kill you."--but would these be sufficient to sustain said market base?

I see this as needing a broad range of topics to be sustainable: survival techniques story, a travel column, some esoteric knowledge, maybe a 'how-to' column, and then some gear reviews. A historical column could fill it out to: "Mallory's Mistakes". Of course there would be killer editorials.

Sounds like a great project, but it seems like it would be tough to sustain. Sign me up.
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I think the market is most likely bigger than you might think. When you get into the preparedness topics, not just "survival" but the day to day, urban homesteading like Jeff is talking about, the extreme adventure travel like Jeff, Mike and Pelton are known for and the survival and outdoors adventure you draw quite a few folks.
 
This is great news! There really is a true need for something like this - something without all the "fluff" and crap like that would be fantastic!.
 
shotgunner11 said:
I think the market is most likely bigger than you might think. When you get into the preparedness topics, not just "survival" but the day to day, urban homesteading like Jeff is talking about, the extreme adventure travel like Jeff, Mike and Pelton are known for and the survival and outdoors adventure you draw quite a few folks.
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Well I won't claim to have a head for business--far from it. I just wonder what kind of volume of sales is required to keep a periodical solvent. Everyone is aware that newspaper sales are down significantly, but magazine sales have also fallen considerably. Some magazines like People seem to be able to keep subscriptions steady (what does that say about our culture?), but many others are seeing sales and ad revenue fall. Mike, Jeff, and Pelton are well known here, but I don't think I know more than one other person who would recognize their names or be able to tell me what they do. I love these guys, but they don't have the name recognition of Oprah or Rachel Ray. I wish the project all success and will subscribe myself; I'm just awed by such an undertaking.
 
awesome.. this is going to be really cool Jeff... looking forward to checking it out... i used to read a bunch of American Survival Guide when it was around...:)
 
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Now that is something i will definitely buy! This is exiting news. Calling out BS products is great, and maybe a dedicated page for recommended and trusted gear...but i hope there will be at least as many articles on survival skills, sharpening, cooking, maybe some history 101, how it used to be and how we lost those skills, you know, what we think today is a hard core that was every day thing in the past. I hope it will be magazine full of learning and useful stuff and I have every trust in you guys that this will not be another toilet paper. I would really like to have a magazine that i can learn something new on every page...hard to do, but i know if there is anybody that can pull it off, its RAT.
And yes, 'bikini chick with gun/knife in multicam' poster is a must!
 
munckmb said:
Sweet! Will there be a fold-out 'bikini chick with gun/knife in multicam' poster? :p
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Don't laugh. We may indeed have such a section of hot women from Borneo or something :) The focus of the magazine will be very objective information and serious but we also want it to be fun and even humorous at times.

As for "how many are interested or will be buying this product" that's not somethign we have to worry about. The first issue will be free and on the new stands. People will get it for nothing. With many many many thousand of these going out.

Again, we're working on details now. Pelton left for Afghanistan yesterday so we will probably finalize a lot of this at SHOT when we get together.
 
I get so much junk mail, it is destroying the rain forests. But would subscribe to this magazine.
 
That was back when Larry Flynt owned SWAT. I wouldn't be too quick to rush to a conclusion on the who, what, when and where of this though ;) Keep in the back of your mind, Pelton and RAT....that's the driving force right now.
 
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