One of the most popular places at SHOT Show, besides the vast exhibition floor(s), is the media room. It gets quite crowded first thing in the morning, thanks to NSSF providing a light breakfast spread with pots and pots of coffee.

SHOT Show secretly runs on coffee, as evidenced by the long lines at the various coffee joints in the casinos and just outside the convention venue. The difference being that at those places you have to pay while up on the 4th floor in media room the credentialed media drinks – and eats – for free.

And while NSSF is doing its best to host the nearly 2,500 industry media members attending SHOT, and providing them (this includes us from the Outdoor Wire Digital Network) with a place to work, only about 20% of the credentialed media have an active NSSF membership.

A media membership to NSSF isn’t expensive at all. It’s only $25. Or, less than what you’d pay buying your casino coffee daily during SHOT – and maybe half of what it would be if you’re stopping at a Starbucks for an elaborate Venti order that still can’t hide the fact it tastes like burnt coffee.

To address this mere 20% participation issue, NSSF emailed a special offer to registered media the week before SHOT.

NSSF's Member Services team invited media attending SHOT to join, or renew their NSSF Media membership, the week of SHOT. As an incentive to join, NSSF would give those joining or renewing at SHOT a $25 voucher to eat in the NSSF Member Lounge.

It’s a pretty solid deal, at least certainly a fair trade. However, only a relative few – 70 in fact – bothered to take advantage of this offer. If my math is correct, that brings us to just under 23% of the media attending this past SHOT as also being NSSF media members.

I appreciate NSSF reaching out with a SHOT Show related promotion to entice the attending media to join as NSSF members. The question is why, with the cost of an annual membership being so low at $25, aren’t more already joined. I’ve been a member for many years, because it made zero sense not to join for $25.

I just presumed many, many more of the credentialed media were NSSF members, at least far more than just 20%. We’re talking people that have been attending SHOT for several years, yet aren’t members. Or at least current members.

Back when I was working at NSSF (and running the media room), there were fewer media members attending. If I recall correctly, it was only about 1,000+ members I had to credential back then. And the media room was barely a place you wanted to visit, beyond picking up your badge.

Today, the media room is a real working media room. And it’s a refuge from the floor for when you need to get off your feet, find a quiet spot and grab a cup of coffee. It’s also a good place to network with counterparts from other outlets.

In light of the low percentage of NSSF membership among the industry media attending SHOT, NSSF should consider making the following changes for the 2026 SHOT Show.

First, NSSF membership should be required for entrance to the media room. If you want four days of a light breakfast, coffee and juice in the morning, and soda throughout the day, then become an NSSF member.

Second, NSSF membership should be considered part of the ‘price of admission’ to Industry Day at the Range. If not for all media attending at least early access for those that are NSSF members.

Third, NSSF runs a pre-approved early media registration process. It makes it easy, and convenient, to register through this process. NSSF might want to consider that process as a benefit for those media members that are active NSSF members.

I can imagine there are some that would balk at requiring NSSF membership to access the media room. And, I suppose there might even be those that would complain about having to spend $25 to be credentialed as media at SHOT.

To those I would simply say: A) It’s only $25 annually; and B) If that’s too costly, are you actually working media?

Obviously there would be some exemptions to this requirement, such as local or national news media covering SHOT Show. Those outlets are handled a bit differently due to the nature of inviting mainstream media into the show. Some other exemptions would apply, especially for media representatives that are also exhibiting on the show floor.

But for everyone else, an NSSF media membership should be required for attending the show.

— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network