Country superstars Morgan Wallen and Eric Church are part of a team that has acquired the Field & Stream brand, with plans to start a music festival and even publish a semiannual print edition, on top of maintaining the website and retail opportunities.
Previously, Field & Stream assets had been split up as the venerable print magazine went digital-only, with Recurrent coming to own the brand’s ongoing media and Dick’s Sporting Goods having picked up the retail side. The group fronted by Wallen and Church has picked up both sets of assets and is putting everything back under one roof, reps announced Thursday.
The inaugural Field & Stream Music Festival is slated to be produced this fall, co-produced with Southern Entertainment, with further details yet to come.
Field & Stream magazine was a touchstone of hundreds of thousands of American coffee tables from its founding in 1895 up through the most recent turn of the century, maintaining a circulation of over a million copies into the 1990s. It ceased print publication less than three years ago, after publishing a 125th anniversary edition in 2021, at which point it became a digital-only magazine.
“I can remember my grandfather kept a few of his favorite Field & Stream magazines on the dash of his truck,” Church said in a statement. “That truck took us on hundreds of outdoor adventures and I all but memorized every story and every picture on every page. They were my Bible. It is the honor of my life to make sure that legacy carries on. It is both this responsibility to an American icon and also to a young boy in his papaw’s truck that will be the compass that guides our steps.”
Said Wallen, “There’s nothing I love more than being with friends around a campfire, on a boat or in a deer stand — and Field & Stream represents all of those to me. Being part of its future is incredible and we want to keep bringing people together outdoors, making memories, for generations to come.”
The refreshed print edition won’t be on newsstands, but will be sent out twice a year to a membership community that is being established, the Field & Stream 1871 Club. Colin Kearns, the editor-in-chief of Field & Stream since 2016, will continue in that role and maintain his editorial team for the digital site and semiannual print publication.
The refreshed brand will have as its head Doug McNamee, the former president of Magnolia, a media and lifestyle brand cofounded by Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“We are committed to reinforcing Field and Stream’s legendary status as the authoritative voice of the American outdoors,” McNamee said in a statement. “We look forward to unifying our passionate enthusiasts under a single canopy as we steward this trusted brand toward a thoughtful and expansive revival. As the latest in the lineage of caretakers, we aim to restore and amplify Field & Stream’s authentic voice with our extended storytelling family.”
Part of Church’s and Wallen’s participation in the relaunch includes overseeing an apparel collection.
