Double Gun Journal -Sad News
 

Received a notice in the mail today stating they will not continue publishing the Journal. Those who still have money in their account can choose to purchase products listed on the letter.
An Index & Reader Vol III is planned for Christmas 2023.
"After this we plan to publish more unique books on firearms."

Jim

If that’s not a freaking bummer I don’t know what is.

Sad indeed...and I just renewed!

I spoke with the DGJ folks and thanked them for a job well done for >3 decades. Spring 2022 was the final issue.

I just finished over the course of the last month building up a complete set of the magazines. I had about 60-70 of them and had worked hard with DGJ, eBay and Amazon to complete the set. The last two are supposedly in the mail. One from eBay is due tomorrow. The last shipment from DGJ arrived a week ago and one of them was the wrong issue. They were supposed to ship the replacement but said it might be a few weeks due to shipping it a lower rate. It ticked me off, but I guess this explains it.

It surprises me, after their long run, but you wonder where information and research will be shared among collectors. Not being negative about the individual clubs and associations, but their formats are not really adequate to dissiminate detailed research and reports. I don't know of any US journals that will provide the service they did. In my mind, they jumped started the collector arena's growth and were the leading source of information on a wide scale. Hopefully something will replace them.

As an aside, they have a pretty complete supply of back issues available. All of them but the first few years are priced at $10, I believe. I presume that they will still be selling back issues.

I knew it was coming, but the letter from Dan and Joanna was still a surprise and a disappointment. The third edition of the reader should make the New York Times best seller list. It is supposed to be 500 pages. My set is complete and will be here until I am not.

I was a charter subscriber, and will miss the publication sorely. I especially appreciated the quality of the publication (and the fact that the owner had a Gordon Setter:))

"The day the music died

They were singing bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin'......"


Attachment 108910

As a regular contributor to DGJ, I'm simply heartbroken. I only hope the genre survives somehow, in some medium.

I received the announcement today as well. Sad times for our passion!
If there is any positive spin to this it is that I no longer have to find new bookshelf space for my DGJ Full Collection.
Bob Jurewicz

Sad news. I have not received the notice. I have another year or so on my subscription.

Three plus decades is a great run, as others have said.

The publishing was great, the articles were great, the owners are great. Is there another similar magazine out there?

This is a loss to all double gun communities.

Ken

Amen Brother!!!

Just maybe some of the articles that were going to be in the DGJ, can now be in the Parker Pages,Hate to see it gone but as they say all good things must come to an end RIP Gary

I had a sense the end was coming but didn't know when. Thankfully, I was a charter subscriber and have them all, neatly bound in Slip Cases. What a wonderful idea and timely, it's been a great ride 1989 - 2122! All the Best to Daniel and Joanna Cote!

The DGJ will be valued for years to come!

Jerry

Amen Brother!!! I hear the music!

This is truly sad news. I have all the issues and value them greatly. I've even done an index of the articles that I found of special interest. I had a dream of writing an article for publication in the DGJ one day, now that can never happen.
Times have been hard for print media the past 15 years or so; I know Dan and Joanna gave it their best. I wish them good things in the future.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank those members of the PGCA for the fine articles they contributed over the past 30+ years.

This is so sad. By far the best publication on fine shotguns. I receive several publications on upland hunting but Double Guns journal was for the lover of fine shotguns. Mighty hard to replace.

I think anyone who enjoys shooting composite barrel guns and Short Tens owes the DGJ a debt of gratitude for their Finding Out for Myself articles by Sherman Bell.

DGJ was a class act not likely to be outdone in the future.

It is sad but the fact of the matter is the publishing world is going 100% digital. I never thought I would get used to reading the WSJ on a tablet but I did. Print media will most likely be dead in a decade. I would not be surprised to see a digital DGJ type product in the future. The costs of print production are just not competitive where there is a digital alternative.

A year or so after Parker author Ed Muderlak's last book was published, someone asked him when the next book was due out. Ed told them there wouldn't be any more books from him since the negotiations with the publisher to even accept his last manuscript was "something akin to a judo match." After Ed died I sold off all of his remaining inventory, all new in the original shrink wrap, for pennies on the dollar. It seemed to take forever; even at bargain basement prices, people seemed to not want to read hard copy anymore. I sent all of the money to the Mayo Clinic where Ed had undergone cancer treatment. So much for the advantages of the electronic/digital age.

I would hope that too, but I don't see it happening. With any of tghe dedicated make groups, the journals are almost exclusively concerned with their brand, and are relatively small publications. I don't believe any of them are capable of presenting 10-15 page articles of high quality photography and text. If they were, you would need to subscribe to 7 or 8 publications or groups, and would still have no coverage of odd and rare/non-mainstream makes.

Similarly, if a undeniable leader in a niche business for 30+ years cannot make a go of it, it will be doubtful if someone can step in and do it.

I am really concerned that without DGJ and access to lengthy articles by people such as Sherman Bell, Ross Seyfried and others in a venue not influenced by advertisers, the hobby will suffer. One only has to look at the changes in attitude wrought primarily by Sherman Bell and his collaboraters in areas such as Damascus barrels and successful loading of Express cartridges to see what we will miss.

I will miss it as will my daughter....I was hoping to publish an article in it some day.

Agreed, and as our generations age and disappear there will be even less interest in print. As my daughter points out to me every time I bemoan the direction things are headed (TV, music, advertising, et al): "Dad, you are not the person they're aiming for."

Can't stand digital journals and magazines. I have to print it out to read and absorb it.

From the DGJ website-


~ To All Our Faithful Readers ~
We Regret To Have To Make The Following Announcement

Since 1989 we have striven to produce a journal of the highest quality. However it is with much regret that due to inflated material and labor costs, and diminishing interest in classic guns, we are forced to discontinue The Double Gun Journal. We had sincerely hoped that we could keep going and at least finish this year out; however we can’t go on. We feel so badly that we are letting you all down, but we are not able to financially continue…For the past several years we have been operating at a loss. We now realize that at our age, the demands of a quarterly publication have come to be too much for us.

The young people of today are not nearly so interested in classic guns and subsequently many of our older collectors, with no one to leave their guns to, are forced to sell their collections to get their estates in order. Although it is indeed time for us to step aside, we truly hope that someone will see this adversity as an opportunity to take over the publishing of The Double Gun Journal.

Many of you have extended your subscriptions in advance for future issues, and we trust that you will allow us to repay our debt to you with our products; however if you renewed on or after July 5th, you have not been charged.
We can offer back issues to those who would like to complete their collections or perhaps gift them to someone very special. Also we have many other products available, all of which are listed on the order form sent by post to print subscriber already. They are also detailed in your Spring 2022 issue on the pages designated.

Going forward, we will be devoting our full time to completing our Index & Reader Volume III, which we hope to have available by Christmas 2023. After this, we plan to publish more unique books of firearms.

If you are a print subscriber, you should already have had detailed information on the credit due to you and your expiration date in your mail.



This website will continue to allow for back issues and products sales. More books, shooting products as well as indexes and readers will be made available in the near future.

Thank you for understanding and for your support over the years.

Daniel & Joanna.

Everyone that was considering doing an article in DGJ that involves Parker guns, remember, you can still submit them to Parker Pages. Just sayin'. :corn:

This is a shame. Would hate to see a similar press release from RST.

It's just a changing world at every level. Seems nothing will ever be same again.

I thought the same thing.

This just sucks! I love paper, hate reading crap on a screen as I don't retain it. Need the additional tactile brain inputs (touch, sound, smell) to deep core memory stuff. Daniel and Joanna did us a great service, I wonder if it would have been possible to step into their shoes? I was working on another article for them, I'm in the research mode and plot development stage. I guess its going to go to PP. Do they accept historical fiction based around Parkers? I'd also like to thank all of the other authors for taking the time to contribute.

Wake up Call
 

Apples and oranges. RST services customers’ wants and needs without regard for “how it should be.” They are not modern day Luddites refusing to adapt to the digital age.

-Victor

That’s not a very kind reflection of Daniel’s and Joanna’s dedicated work in providing the very best in the world publication on the classic guns we’re all passionate about Victor.




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But how much space will Parker Pages allow for the kind of article and illustrations we’re accustomed to seeing in DGJ?





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With digital content as vulnerable as it is to retroactive sanitization, expurgation, fumigation, bowdlerization, as well as inadvertent alteration, printed copy should be recognized for having a unique indispensability.

That is, as long as "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" is not violated.

I just ordered another run of books a great friend wrote and also had the book digitized.
The book cost is $49 per the onetime fee for digital is $2200.How does a company/periodical compete or exist these days.
Another friend just recently published his book/passion which is thicker than the Parker Story.Full of color pictures and content dust cover etc..He is selling at $175 per book which has to be at a loss/breakeven.Neither need to make money off the books.
Knowing what I know now I don't see how any publishing occurs.
But the digital version will be interesting.Book form on your computer or laptop as well as kindel's device.

As a quick observation, perhaps we should reach out to any non redundant advertisers and consider expanding our publication based on our ability to secure some of them.

Expanding Parker Pages from its current 48 page format to something with more pages simply to include more advertisers would likely not be cost-effective.

Maybe our PGCA website could stand some “rolling” advertising???



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As much as we resist the digital transformation it is the future,. If collector organizations are to survive into the future we better start putting resources in video content and establishing a U-tube type channel. Todays authors of the written word will become video content creators. My son is an avid hunter and owns 4 SXS's. He turns to u-tube and other video content to gather information/knowledge about guns, duck and grouse hunting, not the written journals. I give him a book on fine guns and it goes unread. I don't think he is unusual in today's world. Young people want information on demand not wait three months for a snail mail NL. Just look at sites like Facebook, people are making fewer and fewer posts as the video content sites explode with users. Just my opinion.