Recoil, the Source Interlink Media-owned magazine for gun enthusiasts, is still looking for an editor-in-chief after controversy this fall led to the ouster of founding editor Jerry Tsai.
His departure — before the school massacre in Newtown, Conn. — provides insight into the gun culture that first embraced the year-old magazine and then turned on its editor with relentless fury when he had the audacity to say that a submachine gun assault weapon had “no sporting applications to speak of” and should be kept out of the hands of civilians.
The weapon in question, the MP7A1, is made by Heckler & Koch, a German gun maker that sells weapons here.
Here’s what Tsai had said about the gun featured on the quarterly’s September issue:
“[T]he MP7A1 is unavailable to civilians and for good reason. We all know that’s technology no civvies should ever get to lay their hands on. This is a purpose-built weapon with no sporting applications to speak of. It is made to put down scumbags, and that’s it.”
One website, Gun Nuts Media, which describes itself as a “gun info, by shooters, for shooters,” said, “Jerry Tsai is entitled to his opinion just like anyone else, but for the editor of a firearms publication, especially a firearms publication that caters to the exact sort of consumer that would really want a civilian legal MP7, to say that ‘no civvies should ever get their hands on’ an MP7 is downright insulting and stupid.”
Before he resigned, Tsai tried to backtrack and pointed out that he still supported the Second Amendment. But it was too late.
At least a half dozen gun manufacturers, including Mag Plus, which holds licenses for the Bushmaster rifle used in the Newtown massacre, and Bravo Company USA, said they were pulling ads.
Although Heckler & Koch actually sells the weapon only to the military and law enforcement, it wanted no part of coming to Tsai’s defense on the volatile issue.
In a response on their Facebook page, H&K threw Tsai and the associate publisher Joe Galloway under the bus. Galloway had scrambled, saying the views in Tsai’s piece actually reflected the gun maker’s position. Galloway is apparently no longer at the company either.
“The contents, opinions, and statements expressed in that feature story are those of the writer, not Heckler and Koch’s,” the company said on the website. “Additionally, the writer and RECOIL magazine have issued a clarification and apology for the ill-chosen words used in the story.”
After blasting the editor, the company then goes on to pretty much validate what Tsai was saying, stating that the “Personal Defense Weapon mentioned in the story is a selective-fire product (capable of ‘full automatic’ fire) and is currently restricted to military and law enforcement agencies by BATF.” They are reportedly pulling ads.
Even before the Newtown massacre, there was speculation that Source Interlink might fold Recoil. But CEO Mike Sullivan insisted at the time that there was no such plan, and that he expected to name a new editor “very soon.”
He said the magazine had a sell through rate of 44 percent — way above the industry average of about 30 percent — and that it had picked up a magazine industry design award recently.
The gun manufacturers who had been quick to blast Tsai in September were also keeping quiet this week. Bravo and Mag Plus did not return calls.
A spokesman for Heckler & Koch asked us to e-mail but didn’t get back to us by presstime.
Farewell
Tina Brown is readying a farewell party tonight after the final print edition of 80-year-old Newsweek goes to press.
The issue has about 50 ad pages, sources say — not huge, but a nice jump from a year earlier.
Newsweek will continue to put out a weekly digital edition, which helps to cut about $40 million in production costs.
It’s not going to solve the company’s money problems overnight, however. The slimmed down Newsweek Daily Beast, which laid off about 60 people in recent days, is still expected to lose around $20 million in 2013.
Time off at Time
Nobody at Time is rejoicing that it is the last surviving newsweekly, but staffers are happy to get the extra week off after putting President Barack Obama on the cover as “Person of the Year.”
Tablet and Web readers got a look at the package on Wednesday, shortly after the big reveal by Rick Stengel on NBC’s “Today.”
The print edition, which dropped the classic red border in favor of silver, did not hit until Friday. It was the first time digital got “Person of the year” first, and it appears to be paying dividends.
The issue ended up setting a single-day record for traffic to Time.com, although it was helped immeasurably when Obama tweeted the news to his 24 million followers. Time said its package was running neck and neck with the day that Osama bin Laden was killed for most tweets in a single day.