Editorial-Opinion January 2024

A picture of me with the first deer I ever killed appeared in our local newspaper. Not because that 9-pointer was newsworthy, but more so because I had a proud and persuasive mom.

The headline was “Young Hunter Shoots Buck.” This was in 1978, and being in a small-town paper was special. I was a proud 12-year-old—probably too proud for my britches—but I remember feeling like a celebrity of sorts. I remember looking at that page of the paper over and over. The little article was clipped out and to this day is pressed behind a laminated sheet in a family photo album next to some pee-wee football action shots.

The idea of print publications—or for that matter pictures in a photo album—is about as foreign and old-fashioned to most folks these days as a typewriter or a phone attached to the wall and tethered to a cord. The internet and social media have changed the world, no doubt.

Call me old-fashioned, but there’s something real and tangible about seeing it in print. A phone call to the GON office last week reminded me that I’m not the only one, and it reinforced the hope I have for this hunting and fishing magazine. A Vidalia subscriber was ordering a membership for a young relative who the past weekend had spent some time reading the latest GON. This young man didn’t spend much time reading, period, so the magazine getting his interest was of some importance, and it was noted.

Then an email came in that reinforced the impact that a photo or story making it into print can still have. A lady wanted to get some back issues of a GON magazine that included a deer hunting story about her husband and kids. Years later, that printed article means something special.

If your son, daughter, husband or wife makes it into the pages of GON, I highly recommend heading down to the local convenience store and buying a couple of extra copies. I think most people who get their magazine in the mail and see a family member pictured might believe they will save that issue or page. Inevitably, that magazine walks away with a friend or is accidentally thrown away. If that happens, you might think you can simply call the GON office and get another issue mailed to you—and you can, typically. But not always. At some point, eventually, there won’t be a back issue to buy. We print an infinite number of each issue, and when our office copies are gone, they’re gone for good. We won’t be firing up the printing press for that issue ever again. Plus, buying a back issue that is mailed will cost more than twice as much as buying an extra copy at the newsstand.

A picture that makes the magazine is a big deal just from an odds standpoint. We get a ton more photos of hunters and anglers than we can ever fit into the magazine. There is a surefire way for a kid’s photo to appear, and it’s through an outdoor-related effort in Georgia that generates excitement about deer hunting for a lot of young hunters… the Youth Big-Buck Contest. I just counted, and 187 kids have entered a buck so far this season. Every single one of those kids entered in the Youth Contest will see their picture in the pages of GON. Fitting them all is tougher than successfully lining up the colors on a Rubik’s Cube. It’s important to us, it’s important to most of those families, and our hope and prayer is that it’s important to those kids. We hope it helps fuel a little flame of passion for deer hunting, and also for the GON Community. Both are important. When you look around at what’s happening locally and around the world, they are more important every day.

Getting so many clicks on a social media post that your phone notifications ding for days, or your picture being the one your family and friends see when they turn the page of a magazine… both can mean quite a bit. GON is more than a magazine that shows up in the mailbox. When I see that GON decal—that iconic red outline of Georgia with those three block letters in the middle—I know there’s a kindred spirit behind the wheel. We may worship different, vote different, look different, and they more than likely drive a much nicer truck, but there’s a bond there that’s comforting.

And important.