Blog Magazine

7 Magazines Now Available at Magazines.com

Every week we add new magazines to our magazine title selection at Magazines.com. Today we’re starting a new blog series in which we highlight new titles we’ve added recently. The picks for this edition cover a wide-range of subjects including nature, off-road running, quilting and home design.

1.    National Wildlife magazine: The official publication of The National Wildlife Federation, this magazine is known for its spectacular wildlife and nature photography, influential articles and dedication to conservation efforts.

2.    Muscle Car Power magazine: This car magazine is all about the classic American cars built in the mid 1960s and early 1970s.  Muscle Car Power magazine includes full-color photos, a buyer's guide for the latest performance parts, and coverage of muscle car events and shows.

3.    Bloomberg Markets magazine: Bloomberg Markets is an award-winning political and economic magazine. Each issue provides in-depth articles on every aspect of global business.

4.    Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine: Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine is a regional home and gardens magazine for Atlanta and its suburbs.  

5.    Cloth Paper Scissors: This arts and crafts magazine is written for beginner and advanced mixed media artists. Find innovative techniques, detailed photos and step-by-step instructions for projects.

6.    Quilting Arts magazine: This quilting magazine is written for contemporary quilters, fiber artists, wearable art artist and art quilters. In other words, a wide range of quilting skills is covered. Find projects with easy-to-follow how-to directions, profiles on quilters, product reviews and so much more.

7.    Trail Runner magazine: This running magazine is written for anyone interested or passionate about off-road running. Regular features include inspiring in-depth articles on training, health and motivation. Special issues include a spring and fall shoe review guide, top trail guide and an annual race directory.

Can’t find a magazine on our site? We want to know! Email us at social@magazines.com or tell us on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll add it to our selection.

My Favorite Magazine: The Week

Last month we started a new blog series called “My Favorite Magazine,” in which we talk to readers about their favorite magazines. We’re happy to continue the series this month with an interview from Heather who picked The Week as her favorite magazine.

A little bit about The Week magazine: The Week magazine is a weekly digest of current affairs and editorial commentary from several news outlets; news coverage includes editorials from multiple political viewpoints are. In addition to news coverage, The Week magazine gives attention to the arts, with sections on music, film, television, and celebrities.

1.    Tell us who you are, what you do and what you are passionate about.
My name is Heather. I am a licensed massage therapist, working for an alternative medical doctor. I also write a food and exercise blog at Heather Eats Almond Butter. I love my husband, our two pups, massage therapy, yoga, cooking, and learning about anything health-related.

2.    How long have you read magazines? 
I have always loved magazines. Gosh, I guess it all started with my parents’ Reader's Digest. I used to love to read the funny stories and jokes sent in by readers. I then graduated to Seventeen magazine, and during college, I plowed my way through countless issues of Entertainment Weekly and People Magazine. Now, I subscribe to The Week, and I love Clean Eating Magazine as well as most other health-related magazines. Oh, and US Weekly magazine is a major guilty pleasure. 

3.     When did you start reading The Week magazine?
I began reading it over a year ago when one of my clients gave me a one-year subscription as a gift. I love how it summarizes the week's current events in such an unbiased and concise manner. I'm so busy with everything going on in my life, and The Week helps me stay up-to-date when I don't have time to watch the news or read the newspaper.

4.    What are your magazine-reading rituals?
 I like to read The Week whenever I can. The current issue usually stays in the kitchen or living room, and I'll read it with my morning coffee or while dinner cooks. I never sit down and read it all at once, and I ALWAYS start with the celebrity page...that's the US Weekly girl coming out in me. Hehe.  Speaking of US Weekly, another favorite magazine ritual is to go to a bookstore, get some coffee and sit and read a Hollywood gossip magazine cover to cover.

  5. What is your favorite column or writer in The Week magazine?
The first few pages summarize the week's current events with the stories followed by various editorials on each topic. Even though I always read through them, they kind of bore me. The rest of the magazine is much more interesting covering random stories from all over the world, and I really like the book review section as I'm always on the lookout for new books.

An Appreciation: Magazine Writing

Today we're taking a much-needed break from talking about our usual magazine industry-related subjects: digital future of magazines, ad revenue, circulation numbers to name a few. Instead, we want to talk about magazine writing. Not content. Writing. Writers. Stories. Opinions. Features. News. The good stuff.

It's so easy to forget in our world of information-chugging that it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears from people whether writers, editors, proofreaders and the like to write. And we're not just talking about the long-form journalism and essays of high-brow magazines like The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire and The Atlantic. We mean writers and editors for all kinds of magazines.

With so many great magazines closing lately it seems more important now than ever to cherish great magazine writing. But that's not really true. No matter what's happening, we should always appreciate it.

We were reminded of the need to appreciate with the release of this year's edition of the annual "Best American Magazine Writing" compilation last week. Like it does every year, this book highlights a mix of the year's most exceptional essays, fiction reviews, features, profiles and reporting.

Seventeen articles are featured; all are finalists or winners in the annual American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Awards contest.  Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson wrote an introductory as did Runner’s World editor David Willey.

Today we implore you to stop chugging your information and instead sip some great magazine writing.

Crisis at Harper's Magazine

Last week, the publisher of Harper's magazine announced its editor, Roger D. Hodge, was stepping down. At first the editorial change seemed unremarkable, afterall, like so many other magazines, Harper's is struggling with the now-familiar decline in readership, newsstand sales and relevance in an evolving media landscape.

But soon after the 160-year-old Harper's Magazine announcement reports that Hodge had been dismissed swirled in the media. Then on Sunday The New York Times ran an in-depth piece about the changes at Harper's, which examines why the struggles of Harper's magazine are unique from other stressed magazines--its publishing model.

Harper's Magazine is not only the oldest general interest magazine in the U.S. but also a non-profit. The magazine gets a majority of its endowment from its president and publisher John R. MacArthur's foundation, making him the "chief benefactor" of the magazine, as well as publisher.

The New York Times notes that the non-profit publishing model has been on the minds of many publishers struggling to keep magazines afloat but as Harper's crisis shows, there's no easy answer "...as advertising revenue in publishing has declined, many organizations have considered that foundation model — combining traditional revenue with donations — to finance quality journalism. But as the Harper’s situation shows, no publishing model is immune to change — especially when one influential person runs the place."

Our conclusion: for now, even though elements of Harper's magazine's crisis may be unique, the future of it is the same as most: uncertain.

Magazine Buzz from Around the Web

Admittedly, it a slow news day around the web for the magazine industry. We've rounded up a few stories that caught our attention and seem worth at least a mention.

A few media outlets are reporting that an unauthorized single-copy issue magazine entitled "Sarah Palin: The Untold Story...in her own words" is selling well despite the publisher admitting the former Alaska governor was not interviewed for the publication.

The UK's Love magazine is making news with its multiple nude covers. The lifestyle and fashion magazine has produced eight different covers featuring nude cover stars for its latest edition. Each is photographed naked in an identical pose. Love magazine editor Katie Grand told Vogue magazine the editorial staff "chose the women who are generally acknowledged to be the most beautiful in the world for the 'fashion icons' issue of the bi-annual magazine." Some of the cover models include Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell among other supermodels.

Lastly, though its not really buzz-worthy, is an interesting article from Folio on how the paper industry will affect the magazine industry this year.

Magazine News Round-Up: Bookazines, Possible HGTV Magazine and the Hollywood Issue

Usually magazine publishers launch new web sites from their tried-and-true print brands. Mediaweek reports the opposite seems to be a trend with publishers lately. Hearst is releasing a bookazine tomorrow called Light & Delish based on the food site Delish; the publisher will released a handful of bookazines last year and will publish more this year.

In the meantime, Meredith, publisher of Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and Parents magazine among others, will publish a second issue this year of a magazine based on Mixing Bowl.com, its online food social network.

New York magazine's Daily Intel blog reports that Hearst is in talks with HGTV to launch a new magazine. We're sure Hearst is looking to repeat the wildly-successful business model of its Food Network magazine. Like the Food Network Channel, Scripps also owns HGTV.

Lastly, Vanity Fair magazine’s annual "Hollywood Issue," which features photos by Annie Leibovitz of up-and-coming actors on newsstands in New York and L.A. on February 3, will hit newsstands nationwide next week, on February 9. This year's cover is a bit of a yawner with actresses Kristen Stewart, Abbie Cornish and Carey Mulligan.

Essence Magazine Celebrates 40 Years

With so many magazines folding lately, we love any chance to talk about a magazine celebrating a birthday. And we love to see a magazine making a big deal of it. Next week Essence magazine will do just that when it kicks-off a year-long multi-platform celebration marking its 40th anniversary.

A prominent lifestyle magazine for African-American women, Essence magazine chose to start its anniversary celebration during Black History Month. The theme of the celebration is "helping Black women put themselves first."

Throughout the year Essence will debut new features, profiles and celebrity columns each month and will also feature new content on its companion website. The anniversary celebration will culminate in September with a commemorative 40th anniversary collector's edition issue of Essence magazine.

Essence Communications Inc, the magazine's publisher, will also present special events in conjunction with the anniversary celebrations including "Essence Presents Black Women in Music" during Grammy Week, "Essence Presents Black Women in Hollywood" during Oscar week and its annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.

Elizabeth Edwards' Well-Timed People Magazine Cover

Yesterday while we were preoccupied with the iPad press conference, various media outlets reported that John and Elizabeth Edwards have officially split. We noticed the timing of this "news": last week John Edwards finally admitted that he fathered a child with his mistress; next week a tell-all book by Andrew Young, a one-time close confidante of John Edwards, is set to hit bookstores. Already, excerpts from Young's book have been leaked, including allegations that Elizabeth Edwards politicized her cancer diagnosis.

But it wasn't until today when we noticed People magazine's new cover featuring Elizabeth Edwards with the headline, "Elizabeth's Breaking Point," that we really understood the effort that went into the timing of the "news" of the Edwards' separation. This People magazine issue hits newsstands tomorrow.

What about Magazines?

After the much-hyped Apple press conference earlier today, our reaction: "What about magazines?" While Steve Jobs talked about the iPad's e-reader app for books, which has five major publishers on board with titles available today, he did not say anything about the availability of magazines. So where are the magazine publishers?

The closest demo was a version of The New York Times, which can be scrolled from left to right and the text can be re-sized and saved to a reading list.

Magazine News Round-Up

Tomorrow, Apple will reveal the device that will (in one way or another) be "the next chapter in publishing."

While we wait in anticipation like everyone else, here's some magazine-industry happenings from today and last week.

OK! magazine and reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian are the latest players in the magazine-cover-Photoshop-controversy-game. This time Kardashian says the current cover of OK! Magazine makes her look like she has lost all of her pregnancy weight when she has not; she also says she never sat down for an "exclusive interview" for the magazine's cover story.

Last week Conde Nast declared its iPhone magazine a "success" after the publisher sold 18,000 GQ magazine app downloads. At $2.99 each, that's a revenue (Apple earns a fee) of approximately $39,000. But it's not that big of a deal says Folio magazine because Conde Nast is missing the big picture.

Also last week, The National Enquirer announced it would seek, ahem, the Pulitzer Prize, for its stories on the John Edwards affair/paternity scandal. As the Washington Post notes, The National Enquirer did break the story but is it worthy of journalism's highest prize?

Another art magazine has folded: Art on Paper. Perhaps, as the publishers hope, someone else will take over the magazine when the economy improves. It happened with Editor & Publisher magazine, so we have hope.