Industry Day at the Range – is this the death of Media Day? Â There would seem to be significant changes coming to Media Day at the Range. Â Two of them are already in place. Â Those changes suggest many more to come.
The first change is a new logo, which no longer includes the word media. Â Instead, it announces the name “Industry Day at the Range.” Â The second change is the new web address of shotshowrangeday.com. Â The old address of media-day.com redirects to the new, though the implementation is not complete across the website.
The obvious inference that can be drawn from these changes is that the range day will no longer be a media event. Â While it isn’t likely to exclude all media, I suspect the list of media attendees will be much shorter than years past to allow for many other people from the shooting industry to attend. Â I speculate that some manufacturers want the opportunity to have distributors and retailers to shoot new products.
If my guesses are accurate, and sweeping changes are underway, what will the altered focus of the range day mean for the new media? Â I suspect the changes will have a limiting effect of information distribution across the internet.
Every year, the day before the SHOT Show has been Media Day at the Range. Â It is a chance for vendors and reporters from the firearms industry to meet at the range and get hands-on time with all of the new guns coming out in the new year. Â It is at Media Day that I have gotten my hands on the first Ruger LCR revolvers, Gen 4 Glock pistols and some pretty trick stuff from Wilson Combat.