Well, folks, I am upset. One of my favorite magazines, American Survival Guide is calling it quits.

In the last year, it changed drastically. They entirely dropped any political and legal articles and changed the name to Self Reliant Journal. Apparently there was a change in either management or ownership. What a waste of a perfectly good magazine, they ran it into the ground.

I started reading ASG I think about 15 years ago. I never was a huge fan of the political and legal articles and editorials. My interest was the survival, preparation, how-to articles and testimonies of people who had been in situations where they HAD to survive or die.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But I see a possibility of several of my other favorite magazines becoming extinct too. I certainly hope not, but we shall see what we shall see.

Gene

-- gene ward (Gward34847@aol.com), March 11, 2001

Answers

I used to read it also,, cancelled 2 years ago. It turned into mostly articles on their major advertisers. When I first started reading it,, it was very informative then it "yuppiefied" Hope it dont happen elsewhere,, Im running out of reading material

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 11, 2001.

Me also Stan. I expect the "new" magazine distribution policies of the last couple of years had a lot to do with their demise as, I believe, a large portion of their sales was newsstand.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), March 11, 2001.

I have been a newspaper reporter/photographer for more than 21 years now. I HATE IT when magazines and newspapers go out of business. That's the reason we need to support the ones we love and need as much as possible!

The publisher world has gotten like a lot of other things...it's SO BIG and competititve and it seems that just a few major publishers own just about everything...that's why mags like COUNTRYSIDE and BACKWOODS HOME are so important! They were started by families who had goals and basic ideals like us!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), March 11, 2001.

I don't think that 'yuppifying' can always be blamed as the death of a magazine. I've got two friends working in the magazine industry who are watching their publications slowly circle the drain even now. They have tried paring down the size of the paper used centimeter by centimeter to cut costs, cheapening the papers and processes used, and are still losing money to rising costs across the market, from cost of paper and chemicals, to trucking and delivery (a BIG increase they said), and so on.

Their is on another subject, but it was with a slant toward small- timers and their subscriptions continue to drop off. Submission of articles drops off as well, so they don't have anything to print from these people. Now, in an attempt to have SOMEthing to print, they have started including articles from and about people others would term 'Yuppies' to have ANYthing to print, but at the same time are aware that it's going to alienate their have-not readers. They got forced into that position to try and save their businesses and turn it around, trying to find enough buyers to stay in business when they weren't getting enough from the Small Potatoes.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 11, 2001.

i see that too. i took some journalism classes in college but did not major in it. perhaps i am naive, but its disappointing to me to see a mag published monthly or bi-monthly that just can't seem to scrape up a few articles. then they resort to what i call "fluff" and also some yuppie stuff.

in the wall street journal last week, i think it was monday the 12th, was a front page lead article about the newspaper wholesalers. there has been a huge consolidation and now only a couple are left. the man who owns/runs the largest was quoted as saying that there is too much waste in distrubuting. what he was saying, between the lines, was that there are a lot of small pubs that are just not worthwhile to distribute. "synergy" my a**. if i hear the word "synergy" again i am going to puke. we need everybody, the small as well as the large. competition is the answer, but we are seeing fewer and fewer entries, not just in magazines, newspaper, etc, but in any and all things in our everyday lives.

gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), March 11, 2001.

I think that the Y2K bust resulted in people really getting sick of trying to prepare for whatever. We have always been proud of our self reliant life style, it is hard but very rewarding. But most don't want to have to work that hard. Also the mag after several years had gotten rather repetive and I had not bought one in some time. Things change and some go away and some survive.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), March 11, 2001.

ASG changed 4 or 5 issues ago. Nothing new. Owners changed and wanted a more politicly correct magazine. ASG built up a subscription with Yuppies preparing for Y2K, Now thats over, they dont care about freezed dried anything, but more "fun" stuff. They pretty much are going the way of motherearth. Go were the money is. CHeap survivalist dont buy expensive products from mass marketers. Hard to sell expensvie ads to people selling to cheap survivialist.

I renewed shortly before they changed hands. I will not be renewing after the current subscription ends unless I see major changes.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), March 12, 2001.

Gene they hung themelves for all the reasons listed above.They chose to be the exclusive mouth peice for for Major surplus and survival (one advertiser)and thus lost all credibility.Too bad but you could see the end coming from a mile away.If Dave Duffy starts back sliding at Back Woods Home I WILL buy a plane ticket to Oregan and look him up personaly to see what the problem is.THAT is a mag that would be missed.

-- greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), March 13, 2001.

Dave Duffy must see something he likes as he bought American Survival Guide's subscription list.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), March 13, 2001.

Always sad to see a magazine die. Much the same was said when news was announced here last month that Country Journal had published its last issue. Much the same reasons, too. I'm in the magazine biz, and I can tell you that we are getting hammered by the distributors sinc the big consolidations of the past couple of years. For example, they now require that every mag they carry has to return so much per foot of shelf space. If you want placement somewhere other than the back of the rack, you have to offer "incentives," both to managment and to the drivers who actually fill the racks. Magazines that don't perform are dropped. The big magazine companies have the clout to keep their under-performing publications on the rack, but the little guys are getting killed.

And all this is in addition to rising paper, ink, and production costs. Whoever claimed that inflation has been minimal in the past decade has not been inside the production end of the magazine business. Now, with the economy in "slowdown" mode (gotta love the talking heads trying to avoid the R word), it will only get worse. We're lucky that teh vast majority of our circulation is subscription, but many of our new customers come from rack sales. It's gonna get rough.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), March 17, 2001.

I must agree with most all of every comclusion here on the small business closing here in this case it's a magaxine. MY QUESTIONS IS what the heck are these compamies merging for if neither is making money. I have been self employeed many years and dollar is shrinking more and more difficult to find employees and very difficult to find productive and willing employees. As far as this magazine maybe it did not contain enough hype .

-- coaltrain (arthurins@yahoo.com), March 18, 2001.

i thought the magazine was great. im really disapointed that it will be gone.i used to look forward to it every month.i never cared for the political articles but i enjoyed the rest.i have keept every one i ever bought and i reread them from time to time.its a shame they wont be around anymore.

-- robert gaines (pegasus48464@yahoo.com), May 05, 2001.

I will miss it I still recall the cow in the fall out suit on the cover and since I haven't gotten all my issues where is my refund for the issues I haven't gotten I just renewed.

-- TIM TADLOCK (thorkettle@yahoo.com), June 10, 2001.

Whoa, just heard about this. I subscribed to ASG back in '97 when I was fourteen. I really enjoyed the self-defense info and the political articles from Peter Alan Kasler (sp?). Main reason I subscribed.It first started with taking guns off the cover. Then they cut the rest out and proceeded into making it some sort of hyper-preparedness/outdoorsforurbanmorons type of rag. Needless to say I didn't resubscribe and told their telemarketers the reason why. I hate to see ASG go, not so much for what it is but for what it used to be. They just shouldn't have took us non-PC right wingers for granted.

-- Aaron Cull (aaroncull76@hotmail.com), July 27, 2001.

while searching on line to subscribe again to the magazine i failed to find a website. after locating this site i now know why. if they had removed the political and legal issues from their magazine i would have canceled my membership quickly and promptly. it is to bad, it was one of the few magazines that used to always keep me waiting for the next issue. if anyone knows of any magazines that are simaliar to ASG let me know so i may subscibe.

-- paul (pugalist2001@hotmail.com), August 25, 2001.

ASG ended up having very little useful content and a whole lot of promotion for overpriced hyped up so-called survival gear. I stopped buying it a few years ago. You can find better information on the internet.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), August 25, 2001.

This explains why I cannot find anymore issues of American Survival Guide. When did they publish their last issue? What is going to take its place? Any input will be appriciated...Thanks.... Shannon

-- Shannon R. (midolmedic@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.