Dear Editors . . .

You've screwed up. You've betrayed every woman who has ever read F&S magazine in the last several decades, and every woman who has ever read and/or contributed to the FSHuntress blog.

Never mind the concept of "Journalistic Integrity." Never mind the concept of "Sexual Equality." Never mind the idea of "Fundamental Fairness." Never mind your glaring hypocracy in ignoring Petzal's beautiful (and oh so essential and critical) theme of "Passing Things Along." And never mind how you've utterly crapped on women in general.

You've screwed your female readers. In doing so you've also pissed off and alienated most of the male readers who already know or who will learn about your sickening devotion to the corporate dollar over what should really matter to your magazine decision makers instead--which is getting as many people--of both sexes--involved in conservation, protecting and preserving our wilds, actually getting people out in the wilds, and, finally, getting people--of both sexes--to do a little hunting, fishing, shooting, and general outdoor adventuring, too. I'm talking about what should be one of your magazine's key objectives, which is to get husbands and wives out together in the wilds, or boyfriends and girlfriends, or moms and their kids, or fathers and their kids, and even, yes, beautiful bevies of sportsminded ladies. Huntresses. Naturalists. Fishing Persons. Conservationists. Voters.

And subscribers to your rag.

But oh no. By eliminating the FSHuntress blog you've sold out your journalistic souls, your ethical cores, to the corporate dollar. In doing so, you've turned your quest for green into something far uglier, a color that now coats any and all people at F&S who support or who were/involved in the decision to terminate the FSHuntress blog.

Cowardly Yellow.

Shame on you, F&S. You've dishonored yourself. The only cure is to apologize to your readers--of both sexes--and keep the FSHuntress blog alive and well. Get off your lazy rears and support it. Promote it. Get those very few among you who actually do write and think and work hard for a living to contribute to it. And keep your Huntress employed, busy, and well paid while you're at it.

Must I turn to my daughter and tell her that the magazine we've been reading for all these years has become the product of sexist, biased, stupid, greedy corporate cowards?

T.W. Davidson
Father of a 14-Year Old Outdoors-Loving Daughter.

I am forced to agree with the above posters.

Hunting and fishing are mainly viewed as "the manly sports". While many men don't really want their womenfolk involved, and some, like myself, can't drag their wife out to the field, there should be female voices in the outdoorsy world. She'll shoot skeet, though. I tried that once but they taste horrible.

Now the magazine has how many male writers? I hate budget cuts myself, but this isn't some good-ol'-boys "Hey! let's ditch the girl!" thing, is it.

F&S what a poor message you have sent out to your subscribers! Your decision has left me wondering what you really are trying to say. I for one will not renew my subscription. Sure we didn't have a lot of women on the blog in the beginning, I found it by accident and have been participating every since. Under the new format we have had lots of wonderful comments from guys and gals. You need to figure out how to keep this blog and make your cuts else where. Paula

As one of the begining bloggers on FShuntress, this is a huge issue for me. Yes our core isn't in the thousands, but it fills a nitch. We are a minority and it is important for us to have a way to network.

I guess that nice article F&S did on women hunters a couple of years ago was just a way to sell the magazine and not the way it really feels. Show us that you really care about women hunters and keep Kim, who is awsome, and the blog online.

F&S, Please don't pull a OL and get rid off a wonderful addition to your magazine.

We are more interested in hunting than fishing, so when our subscription came up for renewal two years ago, my husband wanted to cancel because we also get a lot of hunting mags. I talked him into renewing because of the huntress blog. I figured if they were willing to have a blog about women, written by a woman, I would be willing to renew. Obviously, women no longer matter to F&S so we will not be renewing our subscription when it expires. I think you are doing a disservice to a large group of readers, I would guess a lot more readers than management realizes. Not everyone likes to write on a public forum. I'm one of them. However, I have read every single post and every single response. I will miss the regular postings, and the unique point of view that a woman has, but I won't miss the feeling of being unimportant to F&S, because obviously, that's what we are.

I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when Kim made the announcement that the blog would be no more. I had been a huge contributor to the blog as the one thing I love most in life is to hunt. Following that, I love to share the stories.
Kim found subjects that were interesting to not only women, but to men also and I was amazed at the number of men that joined the "huntress" blog when it was changed not too long ago. I remember thinking how cool that was that so many men had joined right in and offered their views on the subject at hand.
It was just nice to have a spot to share stories, ideas, and comments without stepping on someones toes.
I think a huge mistake has been made in eliminating Kim and her site. I think from the posts you can see she had a very large following and there may be repurcussions because of the cut. Only you at F&S know if it was worth what may be to come.
JB
I would like to note that I visited one of the "message boards" and 17 hours had passed since anyone posted a comment on one of the subjects. If you go back and look at Kim's blog I think you will find MINUTES would pass and a comment was added..not hours, not days like some of the other ones. Log on to one, you can hear an echo...it is like a tomb. =(

I whole heartedly agree that the editors need to look at this as saving readers NOT MONEY! Which would make this way more important than the solunar tables and look what happened there. Ladies I am offended as a fellow outdoor person that they would even consider your voice as a budget cut!! And I would gladly do anything that would help.

I realize these are tough times, but I feel this would be a mistake. In a time when all are concerned with introducing more women to our outdoor world, removing a vital link and an area of attraction for women to Field & Stream is in my opinion, questionable. I realize Kim may not have the number of “hits” that some of the other blogs do, but there are not as many women hunters either!

If there is no other way to work this out, Kim should be involved in the other blogs to keep the women’s viewpoint in the mix. I feel that would be a good thing for us all!

I'll gladly back this up and put my money where my mouth is, err.. finger tips are...

P.S.

To the women of this site. I truly loved to read your post. Please come back to visit us but if you did not, I would understand.

Jeff K.

I would like to see the blog stay. The old mighty dollar will probably win in the end though.

I agree Debbie!

I won't pay a dime more, I've eliminated mags as is. What pisses me off is they get rid of Kim and bring some shill in who can't introduce himself till goaded into it, and what is he going to talk about? Himself and dog training. We already have blogs on that.

Count me and my daughter, Tessa in ...

Count me in as well. First Bill Heavey disappeared and now this!!

I might even click and buy on an advertisement on this website.

All of the above! They have my vote FWIW!

I agree with the above posts, the information provided was beneficial and useful to everyone who read and contributed.

Hear Hear Jim.

RIGHT ON!

Me too.

count me in too.