Magazine Folds

Idaho Wildlife

Wildlife education is a frill, according to the Idaho Legislature.

With little more than a whimper, the Idaho Fish and Game Department’s award-winning magazine has ceased publication.

The legislature essentially killed the magazine by ordering the publication to become self-sustaining with advertising.

“Our readers have lost a valuable source of information and enticement to enjoy their fish and wildlife resources,” said Diane Ronayne, who has edited Idaho Wildlife for the past 15 years. “Idaho has lost the priceless documentation of an important part of her history and culture.”

Criticized periodically for some of its content, the publication came under attack in 1996 for an article critical of the salmon recovery views of Gov. Phil Batt and senior Republican Sen. Larry Craig.

A few months later, during the 1997 legislative session, GOP Sen. Evan Frasure of Pocatello convinced his colleagues on the budget committee to require the publication to become self-sufficient.

Over the previous decade, it had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies from sportsmen’s license receipts even though only about 5 percent of hunters were among the magazine’s 10,000 subscribers.

Republican Sen. Denton Darrington, a teacher, maintained that the magazine was too valuable to lose as a tool in schools and to promote the state.

In an effort to save the magazine, the department launched a drive for paid advertising last summer and circulated the fall edition free to all 185,000 sportsmen license holders.

Production and distribution costs of a highlyacclaimed issue on the new elk plan were nearly $200,000 while ad revenue totaled $18,000.

A spring fishing issue was scrapped when potential ad revue totalled $32,000, which would have been about $50,000 short of expenses.