Hey Now… GON’s 30!

A lot has changed in this crazy world since Steve Burch ran with his idea for a timely, relevant, local hunting and fishing publication that would be a voice for sportsmen.

Leading a staff who tried harder, worked longer and simply refused to quit, Steve’s vision this month marks 30 years of publishing for Georgia Outdoor News magazine.

With smartphones and the internet changing the landscape for publishers, particularly magazines that rely on subscribers to survive, many outdoor publications have dwindled to almost nothing or shut the doors completely. GON thrives today simply because of our loyal subscribers, many of whom have been a part of the GON family since those first years in the late 1980s.

To mark this 30th anniversary of GON’s beginning, we have digitized every page of that first issue. Looking through those pages is like stepping back in time. There were lots of familiar faces and names in that first issue of GON—writers like Jimmy Jacobs and Les Ager, anglers like Tommy Mike, Ron Savage and Rick Gasaway.

You will see businesses like Franklins, Sports Center and Shaddix Marine who supported GON in the beginning, and there are others who advertised in that first issue that are no longer in business.

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There are folks pictured in that first issue who aren’t with us anymore. But like so many in the 30 years since, they had their picture in Georgia’s hunting and fishing magazine, and that will last forever.

GON is y’all’s magazine—the folks who hunt and fish in Georgia.

Here’s to GON’s next 30 years. Send us your stories, share your pictures, tell your outdoor tales—and renew that subscription!