In the mid-to-late 1980s, as airsoft was slowly spreading its wings, and the airsoft community was mainly an underground one, there was one thing that many of the players always brought with them apart from the airsoft guns and hodge-podge gear they had put together --- a copy of an old or latest issue of the  Soldier of Fortune (SOF) Magazine. Yes, it was something that we took time to read together and go over the loadouts and stories of those featured in the magazine. At that time, there were no tablets or the World Wide Web to grab our attention and we lovingly read each issue of the magazine that we had in between games.

The 1980s was when the SOF was at its height, spawning other rival publications such as Special Weapons and Tactics, Combat Ready, Combat Illustrated, and more.  What made SOF special is that most of its stories were written by or about those who have “been there, done that.” These were the guys that you may not like in the first place, but you will admire them for being in the thick of the action and even incredible stories. It was also controversial as it got embroiled in lawsuits by families of victims killed by hitmen who were hired via ads placed on the magazine.

But after over 40 years of print, SOF management has decided to close down the print magazine and will continue publications online.

As its name says, SOF is the ultimate mercenary magazine with a lot of stories on low intensity conflict, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism. Founded in 1975 by a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, (Ret.) Robert K. Brown, the SOF was initially a circular which was mainly about mercenary deployment in the mid to late 1970s. Many of its readers were Vietnam War vets, and even among us airsofters in the 1980s, our topic on airsoft was mainly about Vietnam, influenced in part by SOF, the critically acclaimed Vietnam war movies (Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Born On the Fourth of July, etc.), and the Tour of Duty TV Series in that decade.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this readership of largely Vietnam War vets who are ageing and coupled with changes in the freelancer warfare had affected circulation and ad placements. From a staff of 50 and magazine sales of around 150,000 a month in the 1980s, Col. Brown now runs it with just a handful of people and not disclosing actual circulation. With the focus on being an online publication, it may try to harness revenues by tapping on its nearly a million followers on Facebook.

The last print issue will be for April 2016, and features are “The Myths of Long Distance Combat Shooting” and “Holy War Combat Tour.” For those who follow SOF, this will be a collector’s item and if you are one, better grab yourself one to keep for posterity.

Print magazines and newspapers in the developed world are struggling with declining print readership and ad revenues even if they have big online readerships. The online competition though is very fierce and online advertisers are very demanding of metrics and lower ad prices. In the same Wall Street Journal story about SOF, there are examples of firearms and military magazines experiencing declines.

The only consolation with the sad news is that SOF will continue to publish online, but will it be able to get the attention of a new generation of readers who have many sources to get similar stories like what SOF offers online? That’s something to find out in the next few years.