About "Grit Magazine".....

Janis Sauncy · #1 03/03/07, 08:39 AM

Recently, I got a promotion offer in the mail about a magazine called "Grit." It's about homesteading, etc., and the promotion says it's been around a long time (I don't have the ad here in front of me and I can't remember off the top of my head just how long it stated). Now I see an ad for it in my MEN. I have never heard of it but am considering adding it to my magazine subscriptions.

Anybody else know of this magazine or have any information as to its value?

Thanks.

Janis

Explorer · #2 03/03/07, 08:48 AM

Do a search on Grit Magazine and you will get a couple of hits.

uncle Will in In. · #3 03/03/07, 08:54 AM

You bet your bippy I know about it from the old days. If fact I had a GRIT route back in the 40s They would send me however many weekly copies I had on order, and I'd go around to the neighbor farms selling it to the housewives that hated to see me riding my bike all over the country for nothing. It was the size of many local shopper papers that are common today. It had interesting country stories and reports similar to many of the posts you can find on HT. Also it used to have several ads for old time things and deals you can't afford to pass up. I'm sure you would find it interesting if not earth shattering.

cheapskate · #4 03/03/07, 08:57 AM

http://www.grit.com/

NWMO · #5 03/03/07, 09:05 AM

I too remember the Grit magazine from old.....very good little "newspaper" format....had all kinds of articles of a "rural" nature.....recipes, hints, advice.

It is now in a magazine format......I have found little substance to it......some okay articles, but very general in nature...I am not impressed with it in this format....too much "gloss".....trying to find a market, and the new format will surely attract a different crowd.....kinda reminds me of the Hobby Farm magazine or something to that effect......guess I like the old newsprint format best.

I did buy one copy off the shelf at a local bookstore....and basically they indicated the old format had not been profitable for years....so it was change or do away with the product.

Wilbursmommy · #6 03/03/07, 09:06 AM

I had a Grit route in the 70's. When I started it was 35 cents, then went to 50 cents. I didn't lose a single customer over the price increase. I lived in the Midwest then. Recently my DH bought me a subscription. The first 3 issues I got were still like a newspaper only smaller than I remembered. Then they went to a magazine with glossy pages. I love it. It has all kinds of homesteading related articles, recipes,ads for stuff you really want to know about, etc...I will definitely keep this magazine coming.

Junkmanme · #7 03/03/07, 09:24 AM

As a boy back in the '50s, I sold "Grit" door-to-door. It was a good learning experience and I made a little money.

GrannyG · #8 03/03/07, 09:28 AM

Grit has been around for years and years, very informative stories, and we used to order patterns from it. Another one is Cappers, almost the same, and lots of recipes as well.

Ravenlost · #9 03/03/07, 10:16 AM

I subscribe to it and enjoy reading it.

Janis Sauncy · #10 03/03/07, 11:49 AM

Thanks, everyone, for the input. It all sounds for the most part positive. I think I will go ahead and try a subscription.

Janis

Bluecreekrog · #11 03/03/07, 11:59 AM

I sold Grit to the customers on my daily paper route in the '60's I picked up a copy recently and really enjoyed it.

kinderfeld · #12 03/03/07, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

You bet your bippy I know about it from the old days. If fact I had a GRIT route back in the 40s They would send me however many weekly copies I had on order, and I'd go around to the neighbor farms selling it to the housewives that hated to see me riding my bike all over the country for nothing. It was the size of many local shopper papers that are common today. It had interesting country stories and reports similar to many of the posts you can find on HT. Also it used to have several ads for old time things and deals you can't afford to pass up. I'm sure you would find it interesting if not earth shattering.

I had a route in the late 80's!

The Biss · #13 03/03/07, 10:03 PM

Did anyone actually sell enough to get the bicycle? I always saw ads for GRIT in the back of the BSA's Boy's Life magazine, but never considered selling it myself. Going door to door to sell those darn Scout Show tickets was bad enough.

My parents never explained to me that people bought Scout Show tickets more as a donation to the district and council. In my little Tenderfoot mind, I always thought that I was selling them a pass to the scout show that most of them would never use and I kinda felt bad about that.

Shoot, if I knew then what I know now... but ain't it always that way?

busybee870 · #14 03/03/07, 10:54 PM

I Sold The Grit Too!! Its Was 50 Cents A Copy, 25 For Me For Each One And 25 For The Company, Send Me The Link When You Find It

Okie-Dokie · #15 03/04/07, 05:08 AM

I fell for that add too. I was surprized when I got my first issue. It isn't the same kind of newspaper that it used to be at all. It is a slick magazine very much the same as Mother Earth News is now. Mainly targeting the country "Yuppy" types. I think it may in fact be published by the same company as TMEN. There are some very interesting articles in it though. Just not what I thought I was going to be getting when I subscribed.

Ann Mary · #16 03/04/07, 10:15 AM

It wasn't very many pages either. But a couple of good articles-- but for me...too much $$ for the small magazine.

Windy in Kansas · #17 03/04/07, 12:43 PM

I can't seem to find on their web site if it is published bi-monthly or exactly how many issues each year. A few months seem combined so I know it would be a less than monthly.

Capper's Weekly used to be a great publication too. A great one to catch up on news if you hadn't had time during the week to read it. Then Capper's dropped to bi-weekly taking away the news update advantage. At that point I dropped it.

Grit would have been good for the same reasons I suspect--news and entertainment for all ages.

Now the same location, i.e. Topeka, KS and Ogden Publications.

BeeFree · #18 03/04/07, 06:26 PM

Last time I got the Grit, it just wasn't the same. It had really changed.

I still get the Capper's, as it is still good reading and has the heart of the home still in it.

#19 03/04/07, 08:31 PM

Well, well! Seems like their was several of us who once sold the Grit Newspaper. However, some people seem to have gotten paid a little better. I sold it back in the late 60's/early 70's for a whopping .10 cents a copy. For each copy sold I got 3 cents and sent 7 cents back to the company. Plus I had to buy any unsold newspapers. This was a weekly thing.

I sold my paper in two towns. The one I lived nearby and my mother would take me to the next town where her sister lived. While she visited her sister I would hit the neighborhoods.

This all went well till several other kids got to realizing that I was making money doing it. Then next thing I knew I had too much competition to make buying all those unsold copies worth it. I would hit a neighborhood and find out someone else had already been there selling their Grit paper.

I seen a Grit magazine just the other day in the magazine section at my local wally world. Picked it up and scamned through it. Decided it was just too much money for no more then was in it and realized it was a bi-monthly magazine.

I hardly get any magazine subscriptions anymore due to everyone going bi-monthly. Just don't seem worth it anymore.