Field & Stream Is Expanding Its Brand Across Hotels, Festivals and Merch

The legacy publisher Field & Stream, which was spun off from media company Recurrent Ventures in January, is capitalizing on its brand equity through a slate of novel brand licensing initiatives under its new ownership. Beginning this year, the company that now owns the editorial title, Field & Stream IP LLC, will lend the Field & Stream branding to between 20 and 25 newly built or converted hotels across the country, according to president Doug McNamee. The company is also debuting the Field & Stream Music Fest this October in South Carolina, along with unveiling a newly expanded biannual print magazine, a series of membership products and merchandise offerings. “The value of the Field & Stream brand is that people trust it,” said McNamee, who previously helped transform Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia brand into a universe of lifestyle products. “We would be remiss to ignore that opportunity, but we also want to make sure the subject matter stays core to who we are.” Despite the relative accessibility of licensing—Dotdash Meredith generated $31.5 billion in licensing sales in 2023, per License Global—publishers looking to diversify beyond advertising must be careful when choosing their potential partners. “The search for all of these media brands is to find super-formats—the ideas that can be broken down into atomic units, then spread to multiple touchpoints and brought to life in different ways,” said brand consultant Ben Dietz. “The danger is that you confuse any touchpoint for the correct touchpoint and overextend into places that don’t make sense.” Exclusive: Recurrent Ventures Raised $300 Million. Where Did It Go? Licensing, media and retail rights assemble For Field & Stream, a primary challenge to building its licensing business was that different companies held several of its core licensing rights: Recurrent Ventures held its media rights, Dick’s Sporting Goods held the retail rights and private equity firm Starwood Capital Group had the lodging rights. In March 2023, a group of private investors coordinated to create Field & Stream IP LLC, which they have since used to acquire and consolidate these disparate licensing rights under one company. This investment group includes country music stars Eric Church and Morgan Wallen, as well as Ben Weprin, the founder and chief executive at AJ Capital Partners, and Barry Sternlicht, co-founder and CEO of Starwood Capital. Weprin and Sternlicht are the architects of the hotel concept, Field & Stream Lodge Co., a separate company that will pay Field & Stream IP LLC to license its hospitality rights. According to Skift, the two firms planned to raise $300 million to acquire and develop the 120-room properties by 2030. The hotels will be located near popular outdoor destinations and cater to travelers seeking comfortable accommodations in rustic locales. Field & Stream IP LLC declined to name the other investors in the group, nor would it share who owns what percentage of the company. Advertising and reader revenue remain paramount While still somewhat complex, having all licensing rights consolidated under Field & Stream IP LLC lets the company tap into a broader array of licensing ventures. These lines of business will still complement Field & Stream’s primary revenue drivers of advertising and reader revenue, said McNamee. The company wouldn't share a more specific breakdown of its revenue composition or offer revenue projections. The media arm of Field & Stream includes seven full-time editorial staff and a roster of around 30 freelance writers. The company has started hiring direct sales staff to pitch brands on buying direct advertising deals against its digital inventory. “If Field & Stream can take a brand—say, a water bottle—and integrate it onto the website, into the hotel rooms, into the music festival and onto print magazine, that could be attractive to the right brand,” said Thrive Digital founder and president Jonathan Becker. The membership product, the 1871 Club, costs $15 per year (The Hobbyist), $75 per year (Legacy Member) or $95 per year (Founders Circle), but only the latter two provide members with the biannual print magazine and early access to tickets for Field & Stream Music Fest. Three-day tickets to the festival cost between $189 and $1,089, and Church will be headlining. The publisher also expects to generate more revenue from merchandise, which it can now sell on-site rather than having to whisk away interested readers to third-party vendors through an affiliate program. While Field & Stream can now produce its own products, such as fishing poles or apparel, it plans to wade into retail cautiously, according to McNamee. “Licensing is predicated on a brand being relevant,” McNamee. “If Field & Stream has been relevant despite its fractured ownership, imagine what we can do now.”