American Scouting Digest

on October 23, 2008 in Film & Books

I do not subscribe to very many magazines. I receive Boy’s Life and Scouting magazines, of course. I own a Macintosh computer so I receive Mac/Life and MacWorld magazines. I also get Entertainment Weekly just for the fun of it. Once in a while I may subscribe to Consumer reports or Popular Science. A magazine I once subscribed to and enjoyed was American Scouting Digest (ASD).

I liked receiving American Scouting Digest. It was a magazine published and written by people who cared about Scouting. The articles were well written. The photographs were outstanding. There was even an “Ask Andy” section of the magazine.

The magazine was a high class printing. Each page was thick stock paper and in color. The photographs were great to look at. The articles were well written. Each issue was only about 44 pages long, but they were worth looking at. The magazine was a fine addition to the official magazines I receive that are published by the Boy Scouts of America.

Tonight, I was sorting through a pile of magazines that had accumulated in my rack (about a two foot tall pile) and I came across my last issues of ASD. The last one I recieved was the Fall 2007 issue. I do not recall getting a subcription notice in the mail so I went online and checked out their site, and noticed it was very out of date. My first thought was, “I guess they quit printing the magazine.”

I did a little more digging on the site and found a phone number to call about subscribing, so I called it. To tell the truth, I did not expect to get on answer, or if I did that it would be the operator telling me this number has been disconected. I was surprised when, after a few rings, Ron Miller ( I think) answered the phone. Mr. Miller is the publisher of ASD.

After a short conversation with Mr. Miller, I discovered that the magazine is printed only after they have enough advertising to cover the printing costs. They do not accept paid subscriptions anymore, but send out issues free to those who ask for one, when they get around to printing one. I asked that he add my name to his mailing list.

I look forward to once again receiving American Scouting Digest, but I realize there may only be two or three issues per year. I hope they find more advertisers to get things running again to printing four to six issues per year. That would be great.

3 Responses to “American Scouting Digest”

  1. Kevin says:

    Hey so is this digest still being published for free? I got it for a year when they were still selling it.

  2. stevejb68 says:

    I have been told that they have stopped printing this magazine. It is too bad. I enjoyed reading it.

  3. del greening says:

    i subscribed expecting a boified operation… i recieved TWO copys,, that is all… i guess that they just did not believe the scout law required them to fullfill thier advertising.. sell a subscription,, if you can but you do not have to refund if you go belly up.. that is just the customers loss….

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