I think publishers are just after the ad dollars. More general pieces, like Skelton used to write, don't bring in money. Or, not as much as featured product reviews.)

I quit writing for a knife title after being pressured to publicize a brand that I've never even held! And their PR man never returned my calls seeking a sample.

Another title dumped me, and I think it was due to complaints from an advertiser who thought I wasn't giving him enough coverage. Frankly, I thought I'd done rather well by him considering the product range and the fact that his sheaths smelled really bad. So did that publisher's ethics.

A well known gun writer especially noted for shotgun material and a shotgun book author, told me that he didn't think, Shooting Times had even read the last couple of stories he'd sent them. (He'd placed tell-tale signs in the mss. to see if it was opened & read.)