The historical past of Deer & Deer Searching and its significance to galvanizing hunters and kick-starting the whitetail business is properly documented, with its roots relationship again to the Sixties and a bunch of diehard Wisconsin whitetail hunters. Two of these hunters — Jack Brauer and Al Hofacker — included their group because the Stump Sitters Whitetail Research Group in 1973.
By 1977, the group’s publication — aptly referred to as “Deer and Deer Searching” was launched because the first-of-its-kind journal dedicated to diehard whitetail hunters. The thirst for information amongst native shoppers was evident in the truth that extra 15,000 individuals (principally from Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois) subscribed inside two years.
Nonetheless, when Writer Brauer employed a one-person promoting and advertising coordinator in 1980, little did he know he had tapped a 25-year-old game-changer. Her identify was Deborah Knauer.
“Debbie had a imaginative and prescient — and a piece ethic — like no different,” Brauer stated in an interview the early 2000s. “She knew that we had one thing particular right here, and she or he was hell-bent on letting the world learn about it.”
He was proper. Inside simply two years, with Knauer pushing the corporate to increase its nationwide attain, subscriptions doubled to greater than 30,000. Readers had been flocking to Editor Hofacker’s cutting-edge content material.
“Debbie Knauer saved telling me that we actually wouldn’t know if the general public would settle for our journal until it was on newsstands,” Brauer stated. “So, I went and talked to our native journal distributor, and labored out an association whereby they’d distribute the journal within the northern half of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Higher Peninsula. If that was profitable, then we might strive nationwide distribution.”
With curiosity surging, Knauer’s subsequent push was for nationwide promoting.
“She insisted we attend this factor referred to as SHOT Present,” Brauer recalled, referring to the Taking pictures, Searching and Outside Commerce Present which debuted in 1979. “We had been hesitant. It was some huge cash, and we’d must journey to St. Louis.
“In hindsight, it was one of the best factor we ever did. And that was all resulting from Debbie’s imaginative and prescient.”
D&DH not solely attended the SHOT Present as an exhibitor, nevertheless it additionally got here armed with help employees — legendary contributor Dr. Leonard Lee Rue helped man the sales space, signal autographs and speak deer and deer looking with manufacturing reps. Within the meantime, Knauer canvased the commerce present flooring armed together with her steel-trap reminiscence of D&DH’s reader demographics.
“She knew these numbers backwards and forwards,” Brauer stated. “Our common reader was a high-end demographic — guys that had been SERIOUS deer hunters and who spent some huge cash on the passion. Deb knew our readership was one thing each advertiser would need to attain.”
The onerous work and dedication to excellence paid off over the subsequent decade, because the journal blossomed right into a newsstand powerhouse. The years did convey change — the corporate’s sale to Krause Publications in 1992 and, later, F+W Media. Knauer stepped away in 2000 to pursue different pursuits, however by then D&DH was a full-on model, nonetheless anchored by the journal with an ABC-audited circulation of 140,000+ subscribers.
Though print has actually declined through the years, D&DH nonetheless boasts a paid circulation of 96,743 (together with digital subscriptions). Nonetheless, the model’s digital, social media, TV and podcast attain has grown to one thing each Knauer and Brauer knew would occur. In the present day, D&DH’s web site attracted 5.95 million guests; its social media pages are adopted by 1.4 million hunters; the Deer Discuss Now podcast reaches 2.1 million listeners; and the DDH-TV present attracts 14.8 million viewers, yearly.
“A lot of this success may be traced again to Debbie’s early work,” stated Editor Daniel Schmidt. “However she would have by no means wished to take credit score for any of it. Like every good boss, coach or mentor, she was fast to deflect credit score to her employees. She pushed us — very onerous generally — not solely to be our greatest, however to be model ambassadors and consummate professionals.
“She left her fingerprints throughout this model. We owe her an ideal debt of gratitude.”
After a few years of battling well being issues, Knauer died July 3, 2025, on the age of 70.
You’ll be able to learn extra about her life right here: https://www.wichmannfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/deborah-knauer
