The Official Newsletter of Coastal Angler Magazine Franchising, Inc.
JULY 2021
NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
COMING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC POSITIONED FOR SUCCESS W
hen the pandemic hit last year, we weren’t sure what was going to happen to our free fishing magazine. Just like most businesses around the country, we braced for the storm. As restaurants and businesses began closing, so too went the places where we distribute magazines. We wondered: Where are we going to drop off our magazines? Will our advertisers cancel? Will a decade of building our brand and all of our franchisees’ hard work come to an end? What will become of the marine industry? This uncertainty about the future that we all felt on many different levels at the beginning of the pandemic led many businesses to get creative and pivot their models. Coastal Angler/The Angler Magazine was among those businesses. We immediately pivoted by inventing and rolling out a new product called The Angler Video Magazine. The “Vid Mag” was intended to offer franchisees a new
stream of revenue. We already offered an e-magazine, but this was to be a separate product and a hybrid with a video on every page! We offered 100 percent of the sales to the franchisee who sold the most each month in the form of a contest. Joe Woody, our Great Smoky Mountains franchisee, won the contest month after month, and said, “This Vid Mag is so easy to sell! I just tell them to go to Vidmag.com, and it sells itself!” The advertisers and the readers love it. Thankfully, all of those “What if?” worst case scenarios we anticipated did not happen. Our franchisee group overwhelmingly embraced the challenges before them during the pandemic month after month with grit, determination and a positive attitude. They pivoted, too. Instead of lying down and closing up, they said, “We are going to keep distributing. We are going to stay in business. We just need to find other places to put the magazines!” And they did. The dedication
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW! People of all ages love Coastal Angler & The Angler Magazine! Just ask Florida girls Hunter Rowan and Pasiynne Pressley, who enjoyed reading our magazine while waiting to go whitewater rafting.
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A FISHING KAYAK!
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INSHORE TACTICS WATCH VIDEO
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTIN HOOVER IG: @REDFISHING321 / YOUTUBE: ISLAND ANGLER FILMS
VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 9
F R A N C H I S E
SPRING TRANSITION APRIL 2021
O P P O R T U N I T I E S
A V A I L A B L E
W O R L D W I D E
and determination many of our franchisees exhibited in the face of an early pandemic was inspirational. Another strange thing happened. The massive cancellations from our advertisers that we expected never happened, either. It turns out fishing is a great way to social distance! More people started fishing and boating... and advertisers kept advertising. Our loyal readers kept picking up magazines. As we begin the second half of 2021, it is with renewed optimism. It appears Coastal Angler/The Angler Magazine weathered the storm of the pandemic, and we might have come out on the other side stronger than ever. The tenacity of our franchisees to push through in those early months of the virus, coupled with the growth of the Video Magazine to 1.5 million emails in under a year, and the boom of the marine industry all give us great hope for things to come. We don’t have a crystal ball, but it seems our little fishing magazine is here to stay.