Subscriptions up after DNR magazine targeted
Governor aims to kill publication next year
A funny thing happened after the Walker administration decided it wanted to stop publishing the Department of Natural Resources’ magazine.
People started subscribing to it.
Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine has gained more than 2,300 subscriptions since Gov. Scott Walker’s budget called for killing the selfsupporting magazine, according to the DNR.
The magazine has 82,369 subscribers.
Since Feb. 11, subscriptions are up nearly 3%. Another 350 subscribers renewed subscriptions since then, the agency said.
Walker’s budget plan infuriated devotees of the magazine. Some had never subscribed. But the decision to kill it prompted many to contact the DNR and sign up for a one-year
subscription.
If approved by the Legislature, Walker’s plan calls for the last issue to be distributed in February.
“I don’t know why, after 40-plus years of living in Wisconsin, I never subscribed to it, but I sure as hell did today,” Denny Connor of Madison said in an email after reading about the demise of the magazine.
Connor said he spends much of his free time on environmental restoration projects.
“Cancellation of the fine publication is just one more indication of what we have to look forward to,” Connor said.
Critics of the decision have said it serves as an example of the Walker administration’s efforts to weaken the DNR. They also believe the agency is losing a communications tool to help with causes that are in their interest such as encouraging more hunting — a sport whose participation rate is in decline.
Former editors say top brass of the DNR under Walker made it clear they wanted the magazine to avoid issues such as climate change and environmental regulation that might rattle some constituencies.
DNR spokesman Jim Dick said in an email that the “rationale to cease publication of the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine has nothing to do with so-called controversial stories.”
Rather, he said officials determined that publishing a magazine was no longer considered a core responsibility of the agency.
“We are stewards of the resources, not magazine publishers,” Dick said.
But the reaction of readers doesn’t surprise Kevin Keefe. He retired in January 2016 as vice president of editorial for Kalmbach Publishing Co., the Waukesha-based publisher of specialty magazines that include Discovery, Trains and American Snowmobiler.
Kalmbach has eliminated or sold off magazines over the years.
“We got some blow-back, but it was easier for us to deal with because Kalmbach is a for-profit company and we make business decisions and that’s just the way it is,” said Keefe, a 28-year veteran of the company.
“The DNR has sort of a different status as a state agency and the DNR magazine probably means more to somebody than their Time magazine, if they happen to get that, because it struck to the heart of what their interest is in.”
In terms of circulation, the DNR’s decision comes at a time of relative stability for the magazine.
The magazine hit a high of 89,500 subscribers in February 2015 and fell as low as 75,580 in June 2011, according to the DNR.
The bimonthly sells for $8.97 for one year, $15.97 for two years and $21.97 for three years. A single copy sells for $3.
The DNR says it will give refunds to those with subscriptions that extend beyond next February.
The DNR does not pay outside contributors for their photographs or articles.
Long-time contributor Anita Carpenter of Oshkosh isn’t pleased with Walker’s plans.
She wrote more than 80 pieces between the late 1980s and 2011 on subjects such as native orchids, shagbark hickory trees and monarch butterflies.
“I had feedback from all over the state,” she said. “I know that the stories were popular. I am not trying to brag, but people would say that it was the first thing they turned to in the magazine.”
The DNR’s decision comes at a time of relative stability for the magazine. The magazine hit a high of 89,500 subscribers in February 2015 and fell as low as 75,580 in June 2011.