JAMES FOLKARD
WORKED FOR BLAZE PUBLISHING AS BOW'S EDITOR, AMONG OTHER ROLES, 2005-16
I first encountered Bow at the World Indoor in Birmingham in 1995 (Issue 1). I was/ am friends with the White family, having grown up shooting for the same county (Warwickshire), so was aware of the magazine prior to launch. The cover featured Barry Farndon and Sue Mcgrath. It was inspiring to me (as cover stars should be) and shortly afterwards I moved to be coached by Barry and his wife, June, at their Dunlop club in Coventry.
I first became involved with Bow with Issue 33 in 2005, following its sale to Blaze Publishing (publisher of predominantly fieldsports magazines, based in my home town of Leamington Spa). Peter Jones, who was the GNAS PR officer at the time, was new to editing Bow, and I was then working at Custom Built Archery. I’d been shooting for roughly 16 years, and I was one of those people the publisher approached for technical input on the content of the magazine. I became technical editor from Issue 37 in 2006, and then editor shortly afterwards – the start of 11 years working at Blaze. So the first issue I worked on was number 33, and the final one was 108, so 76 in total. My input on these varied, and as the company grew and I took on more responsibility, Bow became a smaller part of my overall job.
When I took over we quite quickly standardised the design and identity of the magazine. Editorially we introduced set features and sections of the magazine, meaning readers and advertisers knew what to expect for their money. In the first 10 years there were 31 issues. In the next 10 more than double that – we went from quarterly, bimonthly then eight per year. Pagination and, therefore, content increased, soon varying seasonally between 68 and 76-plus pages. The feedback we received from the ATA in the
US each year was really great – as was the big brand support. As well as the content and look of the magazine, I remember the paper quality and feel of the magazine was consistently praised.
There were many great moments. The ‘Biggest Ever’ 50th issue was quite a milestone, and the first issue for which we used spot colour on the cover. We were learning on the job, and I remember spending a long evening getting the file repro and PDF export settings right.
Vegas was always cool. We did some fun write-ups – I think my trip with dep-ed Emily was probably my favourite. We (Blaze) had an alternative wedding magazine at the time that Emily edited, and we had blast going round all the big hotels under the pretence that we were getting married (for an article, of course).
Proud moments? Seeing my sister shoot at Lords in 2012. I’ve not seen her shoot in enough internationals, and London was only the second time I’d seen her at the Olympics, out of the four she’s competed in over her career so far. London 2012 was an event everyone in Britain should be proud of I think.
Professionally, I’m now a project manager at an ecommerce agency, so using many of the same skills to herd different cats. Personally, I’ve not been to a tournament with a bow in hand for a while now, but never say never again. I’d love it if the next generation of Folkards could get as much from shooting as Naomi and I have – I’m all for it. Archery in the ’90s and noughties was fantastic for me. I had reasonable success, an enormous amount of fun (admittedly not all with a bow in my hand), made numerous friends for life and, ultimately, archery enabled me to gain legitimate employment and a wife (we met at work). It’s steered my whole life since I first joined GNAS in 1990. Who would have thought that an archery have-a-go at a Scout camp could have led to so much?