Ok, this is breaking: there are successful magazines out there not targeted at overeducated New Yorkers with loads of disposable income.
Some of those magazines are aimed at red-staters with loads of disposable income.
Garden & Gun appeals to the gun-toting, garden-tending residents of the South. It was one of Media Industry Newletter's "15 hottest magazine launches of the year.”
We’re used to having our dinner arrive pre-slaughtered and we can’t afford real gardens. But Intern Whitney, one of our two resident Texans, insists there are people who both garden and gun. Finally, a magazine for the landed-gentry!
The Fall 2007 issue takes on our favorite topic, therapy. Apparently, the shrinks out in Tennessee are a lot less judgmental than the ones here. Being addicted to killing squirrels is nothing to blame your parents for; it’s not even a big deal:
After I killed that first [squirrel], I burst into tears, then carefully buried it in one of the garden beds after saying a prayer. After I'd killed four or five, I called my therapist.
'I'm killing squirrels,' I confessed. My therapist is from rural Tennessee and had killed some squirrels in his day, but he had long since abandoned the practice. I thought he would tell me I had to abandon the practice, too, but instead he stressed the importance of mindfulness, referring to my newfound activity as a 'killing meditation.' My therapist believes everything we do is an opportunity for growth. That winter, I killed more than fifty squirrels.
Talk about a breakthrough. If hunters can be that neurotic, maybe New Yorkers are not that different from the rest of country after all.
Intern Whitney insists that the South is classy, but we’ve been there and not everyone has all their teeth. In Garden & Gun, the models seem to have extra ones. The magazine is as beautiful as a plantation home. But based on ESPN hunting shows, we’re fairly certain there are no attractive women with a crack shot.
Maybe Garden & Gun’s first controversy will be whether they’re using real models. And with a good scandal, Garden & Gun should have no problem breaking through the New York media scene.
I'm from the South and have worked at magazines down here and also in New York. A friend of mine also works at G & G in Charleston (one of the most amazing cities this side of the Atlantic). The South is full of dumb and toothless…in small towns. But in between you'll find grand estates and cosmopolitan cities, where a certain degree of class and good manner remains that's been all but forgotten by the rest of the country. I feel proud to be a product of the old, colonial, mannerly, traditional, charming Southern way of life, even if I do hope to retransplant to New York one day.
if you're just now discovering G&G, you're way behind. Anyone who grew up in the classic south knows the unique relationship between charming southern culture, hunting, the great outdoors and entertaining. If this publication was written about the jersey, it would be exits and expressways. Not nearly as endearing.
I'm a little late getting to this article, as it was written over a year ago. However, I must set the record straight about my beloved South. I am a 19-year old resident of Mississippi; as a college student with friends from all over the nation, I constantly must defend my "50th" home state. Yes, Whitney, the South is classy. Yes, there are "dumb", "toothless" people here, as there are in all areas. No, they are not all in small towns, and no, not all of the larger cities are classy (Jackson, for instance). If you have never been here, please do not judge. The South is a wonderful place, with more to offer than even beautiful plantation homes and good manners. We are the home of world class writers like William Faulkner and John Grisham, pro-athletes like Brett Favre and the Mannings, influential politicians like Bill Clinton, Trent Lott, Bobby Jindal. Some may not have all of their teeth, but don't put great things past this region. It only puts us one step back in the progress we have made.