Traditional Bowhunter Magazine

Name

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine

Legal name

TBM, Inc.

Website

https://tradbow.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1988

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Hunting and Outdoor Publications

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Periodical Publishers (51312), All Other Publishers (513199)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Sports & Recreation Magazines (MPAJAEAJ)

Keywords

• Traditional bowhunting magazine
• Archery publications
• Outdoor hunting content
• Bowhunting reference books
• Traditional archery gear

Headquarters

HQ city

Boise

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Print and digital magazine subscriptions: Recurring magazine subscriptions sold directly through tradbow.com, offered in both print (mailed bimonthly, six issues per year) and digital formats; subscribers can buy premium membership for digital content access.
2. Single back-issue sales (print and digital): One-time purchases of individual past issues, priced at $4.50 per print issue (with quantity discounts of $3.50 for 10+ copies) and $1.99 for digital single issues.
3. Book and merchandise sales: Direct e-commerce sales of branded books authored by the magazine's editor/founder and contributors (e.g., The Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook at $19.78, Longbow Country at $19.55, Campfire Reflections at $16.55, bundled book sets at $30.99) and TBM-branded merchandise (hats, T-shirts, hoodies).
4. Advertising: Sale of advertising space in the print magazine and on the website to traditional archery, bowhunting and outdoor industry advertisers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine publishes a bimonthly print magazine (six issues per year) and a digital subscription dedicated exclusively to hunting with traditional archery equipment — longbows, recurves, and selfbows. The publication is complemented by a WooCommerce storefront selling back issues, authored books, and TBM-branded merchandise, alongside community features (forums, club directory, photo gallery) and editorial verticals such as Tradlife, Campfire Stories, Tip of the Week, and the Campfire Chat Podcast.

Product overview

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine (TBM, Inc., founded 1988) operates a hybrid print-and-digital magazine platform rather than a single product: the bimonthly Print Subscription and Digital Subscription form the editorial core, supported by a content site with verticals such as Tradlife (Bow'd Up, Getting Into Gear), Campfire Stories (The Bowhiking Chronicles, Outdoor Chef), Tip of the Week, and the Campfire Chat Podcast, plus community modules including the Tradbow Forums, Tradbow Photo Gallery, and the Club Listings and Mentors directory. Reference resources include the Glossary of Archery Terms and the Ashby Broadhead Lethality Study archive. The commercial layer is a WooCommerce shop offering books (notably The Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook by T. J. Conrads and supporting titles), TBM Merchandise (clothing, hats, T-shirts, hoodies, miscellaneous items), and Back Issues/Single Digital Issues. Payment, fulfillment, marketing, and analytics run through third-party integrations (Authorize.net, PayPal, Zoho Campaigns, MailMunch, MailChimp, Google Analytics, Printful/PrintAura) layered on top of WordPress, Contact Form 7, Gravatar, and WPMU DEV's Smush plugin.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Traditional Bowhunter Magazine Print Subscription Bimonthly print magazine subscription (six issues per year) for adult bowhunters who use traditional archery equipment (longbows, recurves, selfbows); emphasizes DIY, unguided hunting and explicitly excludes compounds, trail cameras, ORVs, and trophy-score content. Sold directly via tradbow.com, the subscription office phone line, and mail-in P.O. Box.
• Traditional Bowhunter Digital Subscription / Premium Membership Recurring digital subscription providing registered members access to current and archival digital issues of Traditional Bowhunter Magazine through the members area at tradbow.com.
• Back Issues (Print and Digital) One-time purchase of individual past issues of Traditional Bowhunter Magazine; print single issues priced at $4.50 each (with quantity discount to $3.50 each when buying 10+ copies of the same issue) and digital single issues at $1.99. Archive catalog extends back to the early 1990s.
• The Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook (book by T. J. Conrads) Definitive reference book for novice and experienced traditionalists covering traditional archery and bowhunting, including history, equipment selection, tuning, arrow and bowstring building, plus appendices and contact directories for bowyers, fletchers, and manufacturers; forward by Glenn St. Charles; listed at $19.78.
• TBM Branded Merchandise (Clothing, Hats, T-Shirts, Hoodies, Misc) Branded apparel and accessories including hats, T-shirts, hoodies, and miscellaneous items bearing the Traditional Bowhunter Magazine brand; orders are prepared and shipped by print-on-demand vendor Printful/PrintAura.
• Print and Digital Advertising Placements Sale of advertising space in the print magazine and on the tradbow.com website to traditional archery, bowhunting, and outdoor industry advertisers (bow manufacturers, broadhead and arrow makers, apparel, optics, outdoor gear); inquiries handled via the dedicated advertising page and the subscription office.

Quantifiable outcome

• Publishes 6 issues per year on a bimonthly schedule
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• PayPalcoreTechnology or IntegrationPayPal is one of two accepted payment methods on tradbow.com. Customer credit-card and billing information is passed to PayPal for transaction processing; no financial information is retained on Traditional Bowhunter Magazine's site.
• Authorize.netcoreTechnology or IntegrationAuthorize.net is the second of two accepted payment methods on tradbow.com. It processes credit/debit card transactions (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover); no card data is retained on the magazine's systems.
• Zoho CampaignscoreTechnology or IntegrationZoho Campaigns is the email service provider behind the Tip of the Week opt-in newsletter and other marketing emails that subscribers sign up for through contact forms on tradbow.com.
• MailMunchsupportingTechnology or IntegrationMailMunch is used together with MailChimp for opt-in email signup forms and for routing name/email data submitted via TBM contact forms for newsletter and marketing delivery.
• MailChimpsupportingTechnology or IntegrationMailChimp receives name and email address data for the purpose of sending the email newsletters that subscribers sign up for through tradbow.com contact forms.
• PrintfulsupportingTechnology or IntegrationPrintful is the print-on-demand vendor used to prepare and ship TBM-branded clothing orders (hats, T-shirts, hoodies) placed through the tradbow.com shop.
• Google AnalyticssupportingTechnology or IntegrationGoogle Analytics is used to collect site-traffic information — page visits, link clicks, location, demographics and visit frequency — to inform tradbow.com audience reporting.
• Gravatar (Automattic)supportingTechnology or IntegrationGravatar is used to display commenter profile pictures on tradbow.com; an anonymized hash of the commenter's email is sent to Gravatar to look up the avatar.
• WPMU DEV (Smush plugin)supportingTechnology or IntegrationWPMU DEV's Smush image-optimization plugin sends uploaded images to WPMU DEV servers to optimize them for web use; EXIF data is either stripped or returned and is not stored on WPMU DEV servers.
• Google Business ServicessupportingTechnology or IntegrationContact-form submissions from tradbow.com are routed to a corporate email mailbox via Google Business Services for customer-service handling; data is not stored on the TBM site.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Archery Magazine: Archery Magazine covers target archery and bowhunting with strong equipment reviews. It is comparable to TBM in being a specialist archery publication, though its center of gravity is competitive/target archery rather than traditional hunting.
• Bowhunter Magazine: Bowhunter Magazine is a long-running North American bowhunting publication covering archery, equipment and hunting. It is the closest broad-archery magazine peer to TBM, though it covers compound and modern equipment as well as traditional, making TBM its narrow-niche counterpart.
• Eastman's Journal (Eastman's Bowhunting Journal): Eastman's publishes bowhunting content across print, digital and video aimed at serious bowhunters. It is comparable to TBM as a niche enthusiast bowhunting media brand, though it leans more heavily into the broader Western big-game hunting niche.
• Petersen's Bowhunting: Petersen's Bowhunting is one of the largest US bowhunting enthusiast magazines, covering broad archery, hunting and equipment. It competes for the same advertising dollars and reader attention as TBM, but at a much larger scale and with a more general equipment focus.

Broad incumbents

• Sports Afield: Sports Afield is a historic American hunting and outdoor magazine. It is a broad incumbent whose bowhunting content overlaps with TBM's audience, but it covers a much wider hunting and conservation portfolio rather than specializing in traditional archery.
• American Hunter (NRA Publications): American Hunter is the NRA's flagship hunting magazine covering firearms, bowhunting and conservation. It is a broad incumbent in the hunting media space that overlaps with TBM's audience but covers firearms-led hunting more heavily than traditional archery.
• Outdoor Life: Outdoor Life is a long-running US hunting and outdoor recreation magazine with significant bowhunting coverage. It competes for ad spend and reader time with TBM, but as a broad outdoor incumbent rather than a niche specialist.
• Field & Stream: Field & Stream is a heritage American hunting and fishing magazine with bowhunting content. It is comparable to TBM as a print-led hunting publication, but at a much broader scale and audience.

Emerging players

• Primitive Archer (Traditional Archery community): Primitive Archer is an online community and forum dedicated to traditional bowhunters and bowyers. It is comparable to TBM as the other major traditional-archery-focused media platform, but with a heavier bowyer/DIY-build emphasis and a community/forum-led model rather than a paid print subscription model.
• Bow & Arrow Hunting: Bow & Arrow Hunting is a digital-first bowhunting media brand that has expanded into print. It is comparable to TBM as a bowhunting-focused content brand, but skews younger, digital-first and broader in equipment focus than TBM's traditional-only niche.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/traditional-bowhunter-magazine
• Xx.com/tradbow

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Traditional Bowhunter Magazine