Former Arkansan’s media career began with essay
A random conversation with a stranger was a personal highlight at the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association annual conference Oct. 3-6 in Florence, S.C.
Tim Wagner is the digital marketing manager for Hardin-Simmons University. His badge bore the green ribbon of a first-time conference attendee, so I sat down to welcome him. He lives in his native Texas, but he spent his junior high and high school years in Springdale during the period when I covered Outdoors and Sports for the Morning News. He played football for Central Junior High School under head coach Fred Hartsfield.
“He was a great coach,” Wagner said. “He did it right. He taught us to tackle by leading with our shoulders with our head to the side. I never got my bell rung. He really cared about his players.”
“I recognize your name now,” I said. “I covered you.”
Names from that era rushed forth like a torrent. Aaron Adams, a great Springdale High defensive back who became a University of Arkansas cheerleader. Shane Beyer, the quarterback. Casey McMillan, a wide receiver and defensive back. Teammates were in awe of McMillan, who transferred in from Odessa (Texas) Permian, whose storied football program inspired Friday Night Lights. There was Tommy Golden, an All-State running back and Don Streubing, the All-State center. Don’t forget the placekicker, Booger Moseley!
“I don’t remember you, but I know I read you,” Wagner said. “I read every sports story, especially the outdoors stuff.”
Wagner’s career started with an essay. In the early 1990s, Outdoor Life magazine held an essay contest. The prize was an all-expenses paid African safari with Outdoor Life writers and a film crew. Contestants submitted 250-word essays from around the world, and Outdoor Life’s editors chose Wagner’s as the best.
That was at the beginning of the great print media compression, Wagner said. The media world was going digital, and all of the big sporting magazines responded by replacing their features with short, tight, newsy pieces.
That was during my time as an Outdoor Life contributor. They paid $1 per word for those 250-word “shorts,” and I wrote three or more of those items per month from 1997-2003 for the South and Midwest regions.
“I told their guys that they were making a mistake taking away the big features,” Wagner said. “People still read long articles if the writing is good and it keeps them engaged. I’m proof of that.”
The Outdoor Life people agreed, Wagner said, but those decisions were made high above their level. Their industry was headed that direction, and they had to roll with it.
It hasn’t gone well for them. In the early 1990s, Outdoor Life published 12 issues with a monthly circulation of about 1.5 million. Dwindling circulation took it to 10 editions per year. Now Outdoor Life publishes only four editions annually. That trend ultimately lands at zero.
Sports Afield, once one of the “Big Three” with Outdoor Life and Field & Stream, went out of business around the turn of the century and resurfaced years later as a big game adventure magazine.
Game and Fish Publications, based in Marietta, Ga., was a big reason for their demise. It publishes a slew of state and regional magazines under the aegis of one big national magazine with multiple state editions that include Arkansas Game and Fish (formerly Arkansas Sportsman) Texas Sportsman and North American Whitetail.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Game and Fish Magazine restructured the landscape with its state-specific concept (four state-specific articles per issue). A 250-word blurb with no art about Arkansas in Outdoor Life couldn’t compete with 9,000 words of Arkansas-specific copy and art in Arkansas Sportsman.
Of course, local and specialty content is tailor-made for the Internet, and Web publishers have exploited the opening.
Now, Game and Fish Magazine follows the same downward trajectory. It publishes just two-state specific articles per issue, and it also has gone from 12 issues to 10.
Wagner spent a brief tenure as sports editor of the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader. He worked for Walmart and then joined the FLW staff in Gilbertsville, Ky. He bounced around the media universe until he landed his position with Hardin-Simmons, which he said he loves.
He still loves reading high-quality hunting and fishing articles wherever he finds them. He likes them long — full of details and color — even on the attention-deficit worldwide web.
In this, Wagner said he’s not alone.