Jay Langston

Jay Langston's professional pursuits include publishing thousands of articles and photos that have appeared in scores of magazines, newspapers, books and web sites over the past 38 years. His articles have been published in greats such as North American Whitetail, Outdoor Life, Deer & Deer Hunting, Turkey Call, Turkey & Turkey Hunting, Tactical Life, Ballistic Magazine and Personal Defense World. He's been a Content Creator for Athlon Outdoors and its predecessor publishing companies since the early 1990s. A literary agent representing multiple authors (including a couple NYT Bestsellers), Langston has worked with several notable production companies and motion picture producers. Over the past few years, Jay Langston has busied himself building a new house on his Tennessee farm, where he and his wife, Jacqueline, moved more than a decade ago. Before the house was finished, he built multiple shooting ranges that reach as far as 1,000 yards. After a stint as Editor of the twice-weekly small-town newspaper, the Marshall County Tribune, Langston refocused his efforts towards freelance magazine and book editing. Between 2013 and 2015, Whitman Publishing launched 2nd Amendment Media, their newest imprint. Beginning in the 1930s, Whitman grew to fame with their industry-leading Red Book of Coin Values. Expanding on that theme, Whitman brought in publishing veteran Langston to venture into the collectible firearms and outdoor publishing and media markets as the General Manager in their Franklin, Tenn., office. While there, Langston authored America's 100 Greatest Guns and the Red Book of Gun Values series. Five years prior to coming on board with Whitman Publishing, Langston worked as an outdoor industry marketing and publishing consultant. Throughout that time, he wrote and edited more than 500 magazine articles focused on firearms and hunting. Additionally, he took on the role of Consulting VP of Marketing for OEI Properties to publish a quarterly magazine and provide sales and television production expertise. Also during this period, Langston served as Editor for Southern Trophy Hunters Magazine, published quarterly. Between 2005 and 2008, Langston served as the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's Director of Marketing. Hired by the longest tenured state wildlife agency director, Gary Myers, Langston's role was to develop and launch new marketing campaigns, provide business guidance, long-term strategic planning and facilitation for state-agency-level reorganization. He worked closely with the National Shooting Sports Foundation to improve user participation and increase hunting license sales. The TWRA was also the leading recipient of state-level NSSF grants funding marketing research during his tenure. After a decade-long stint serving in several leadership roles for the National Wild Turkey Federation, Langston ventured into the private sector from 2001 to 2005 as Publisher for Stoeger Publishing, a division of Beretta Holdings. He took a languishing 75-year-old book company and vastly expanded its list of traditional "hook and bullet" titles, as well as venturing into novels and biographies. His crowning achievement was signing Iraq fuel convoy commander and hostage Thomas Hamill to a book deal; released October 11, 2004, Escape In Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story hit the New York Times Bestseller List after one week on sale.