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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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."
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.
