Would you read it?

D

David Scott

New member
In a discussion not on TFL, the idea came up for a monthly magazine devoted to home and personal security. It would cover risk assessment, countermeasures from peep holes to Dobermans, situational tactics, and so on. It would review alarms, locks, guns (of course) and other products and services. The advice of experts would be published in articles and a letters column.

In general, it would cover all the things people can do to make sure bad guys don't hurt them and rip them off. I could not think of such a magazine being published now. Do you think there's a market for this? Would you read it -- once in a while or by subscription?
 
I think the problem would be the limit on range for topics. And how the reviews were done. I think we all agree that Gun Test is good because no one influences them. Just like Consumer reports. But once you cover steel frame doors, the types and how to install them, how many times can you cover it after that and not just be reprinting the artical. I suppose there is a broad range of things that could be covered, and as long as it didn't repeat itself I would order a subscription. And it can't be cheesy like Road and track like. The reviews would have to be real world, and give the bad point too, and be real world in cost. Some car mags I read show a rebuild and say it cost us only xxx number of dollars, but a real person trying to do the same thing gets nickel and dimed for stuff they didn't show and can't afford to finish. And it has to be stuff real people can afford, not what so movie star uses to protect their home(not that it isn't cool to see that sometimes, but who has a million dollar mansion, or 100 grand to blow on security.)
Sorry done ranting now.
 
Don't apologize, Andrew, the stuff you point out are problems with any special interest magazine. How many gun mags get letters saying "Oh, please, not another 1911 clone review!" or "How many times are you going to explain different types of holsters?" and such?

For any special interest magazine to work, you need two things:

1. People who share the interest, so there's someone to sell the magazine to. That's why you don't see issues of Toenail Clipping Collector's Monthly on the news stand.

2. A stream of new products, techniques, and viewpoints, so the mag doesn't just rehash the smae old same old. Product makers take care of some of this for you, some of it you have to hunt up.

As for real world reviews, you touched on one of the things that bothers me about mainstream gun mags (and car mags). I can't remember the last time I read a gun review that slammed a product. Part of this is because the gun mags don't seem interested in reviewing Lorcins and Hi-Points, but I've also seen good reviews on guns that are dismissed as crap by real people who have handled them.

What really got me was a review of four holsters, I think it was in Combat Handguns. The writer praised the first three, and slammed the last one (it was a Kydex unit and he had to cut his pistol out of it with tin snips or something). I was staggered that the author did not name the maker of the bum holster!

The same magazine did a pre-release story on the Glock G36 that read like they were trying to get named in Gaston's will. Very little data on the gun compared to the amount of space they spent calling Gaston Glock a peerless genius.

(I don't mean to pick on CH magazine, others show the same problems).

Maybe I should have asked for ideas on articles and regular features. Put enough of them together and I might pitch the idea for an SBA loan.
 
It would interest me. A problem would be to attract a group of authors who can properly cover the relatively wide range of topics you mention.

On integrity, it depends not only on the author but also on the integrity of the editor and the publisher of the magazine. I sometimes write magazine articles and twice was told "we like your article, But we wont publish your criticism of product X." In these cases I withdrew the articles ( i did sell both of them to other magazines) and have never written anything for either of those magazines again.
 
I suspect you'd have problems with subscriber loyalty. Once the house is reasonably burglar proof and the reader feels he has an adequate amount of personal defense training, what would be left to keep him reading?

Otoh, even without a long-term and loyal subscriber base, you could probably make a go of it - because your readers will be "point of sale" readers and that's something you can sell to the advertisers.

pax


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"Is there anything wrong with a woman preferring the dignity of an armed citizen? I don't like to be coddled and I don't like to be treated like a minor child. So I waive immunity and claim my right -- I go armed." -- Longcourt Phyllis in Beyond This Horizon by Robert Heinlein
 
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