Blog Magazine

A Call for Relevant Content

Karen wonders where all the good magazines for grown-up girls are:

Why is it that men's magazines have cool stuff like gadgets and video games, and women's magazines have crafts and decorating tips? These men's magazines are everywhere. And they are all the same really. There are like a billion men's versions and no women's versions.

I want a women's lifestyle magazine with games, gadgets, films, tv, comics, and other stuff from a women's perspective. Yes, magazines like Play or PC Gamer may be somewhat non-gendered, but they don't go that extra mile. And even so, they err on the side of male, with the all too frequent "girls of gaming" issues.

Karen notes that there are some online gaming magazines written specifically for females, but she wants the real thing. A tactile, glossy, holdable magazine written for girl gamers--why isn't there one?

 

Do You Remember This Magazine?

I think I would remember this rag if I'd ever come across it. Isn't that some of the flyest cover art you've ever seen?

Quick Hits: One Offs

• Money's 42 ways to make yourself richer: From simple steps to more complex planning, this guide will get you geared up for saving.
• An Exercise for Bloggers: Improve your website by reading a magazine.
• After Labor Day, go directly to Halloween: Publishers claim that readers want holiday ads and content this early
• A Magazine Time Machine: An automobile enthusiast reaches back to browse car magazines from back in the day.
• Magazines Online: A Brief Essay: It's all about the "communities of interest."
• Is it cool to read magazines at bookstore prior to buying?:  Surprisingly, the answer seems to be yes.
• Why print is here to stay, at least for now: "The printed magazine delights their senses of touch and sight as much as stimulating their intellect. Each glossy page feels so distinct, so thick and bursting with color, tactile and real as opposed to the virtual pixels on a computer screen that are so fleeting. Each in-depth story has a heft that feels solid, feels permanent, feels almost like it belongs in a book."

When Designers Design Design Magazines

Jandos of Designing Magazines is one of the best bloggers writing about the art of magazines. He weighs in today with thoughts on FPO magazine, 'For Publications Only." This rag is for designers and art directors who work on publications, so this is a very interesting take on their work:

In my view Auras’ distinct house style often doesn’t serve the editorial voice of the publications it handles. It’s a look that leans towards the cutesy— they use typefaces that, while not actually novelty fonts, come close—they’re so garish as to be distracting in an editorial context. There’s too much clutter and repetitive empty decoration on the page, and a tendency to undermine hierarchy with graphic add-ons that distract from rather than focus attention on content. Auras pubs are often full of bright saturated colors—but there’s often no unifying color scheme.

I particularly dislike their art direction. They use a lot of stock, which leads to trite and obvious visual solutions, but even when commissioned, images in Auras pubs too often lack subtlety or nuance. They tend to illustrate headlines rather than articles. The Auras method works ok for Moment, but was an enormous step backwards for Urban Land, a once-attractive magazine that the company redesigned early last year.

It must be said that Auras pages are colorful—maybe even attractive, but I’m just not a big fan of magazine design that’s pretty for the sake of being pretty. It gives every page the same goal and the same solution, and a piece of art that merely reinforces the headline, even if it does so attractively, is a missed opportunity to get into meatier issues.

Read the whole meaty review at Designing Magazines.

Glenn Beck on Magazines

Glenn Beck, conservative talk-radio and television host:

So there I was staring at the wall of magazines, and I started to think…who reads all these things? Didn’t there used to be, like, five magazines—Time, Popular Mechanics, Good Housekeeping, Life and Highlights?  I remember when People came out and it was MAJOR news.  A magazine just about…people? How decadent!  Now, there’s a magazine for everyone no matter how obscure your tastes.  Magazines for cat and dog lovers…stamp collectors…Civil War re-enactors…vegetarian yoga fanatics who like bluegrass music.  It’s nuts. (Webmaster’s note:  Mr. Beck’s flippant attitude toward the magazine industry does not apply to Fusion, his own groundbreaking publication that you can subscribe to elsewhere on this site…).

I also noticed that magazines have gotten awfully thick…almost like books. Who has time for all that reading?  Aren’t magazines supposed to be thin and manageable…like “lite books” for people who don’t love to read and like lots of pictures?  Sure, if all the magazines were all about Iran, illegal immigration and the end of the world, that would be one thing—I’d read those all day long!  But when they’re about speedboats and rap music, who really cares?

Thoughts on the Business 2.0 Demise

Bloggers far and wide have weighed in on the death of Business 2.0 magazines. So much so that I thought a round-up of commentary was in order. See excerpts from posts and essays about the death of a well-loved read, and follow the links to read the pieces in full.

Digital Phocus:

With writer’s such as Om Malik, a nice network of blogs and a strong focus on all things tech and business, the magazine really hit a sweet spot for me. Working in business development in technology and media, their coverage of industry changes, new companies and developing business models was always much appreciated.

Now, I can’t help but wonder, “Who will fill the void?”  BusinessWeek devotes coverage to tech as does Fortune, but tech is only a small subset of what they attempt to cover. And when events such as the Sub-prime mess occur, you won’t see more than an article devoted to this constantly evolving industry.

Some suggest that Fast Company offers an alternative.  While I find it innovative and creative, it seems to focus more on a wide swath of topics…

Word Sell, Inc:

A renewal notice from a publication that just announced it is ceasing publication! I wonder if this is accidental or intentional. Does Time Warner wants to cushion the blow by scooping up some quick cash from uninformed subscribers? Doubtful. More likely a case of internal communication disconnects.

And speaking of disconnects, what’s up with a tech savvy publication trying to entice subscribers with something as cheesy as a free “Executive Pen”? Doesn’t Time Warner know 2.0 readers expect something a little more cutting edge than a pen? It’s like Apple offering new iPhone customers a free toaster.

AdFreak:

[S]oon enough, 2.0 began getting slapped on anything to give it a quick, hip sheen. The trend took a hit with the demise of Business 2.0, but is hardly dead. For me, it reached its nadir when I got an e-mail from the self-described “Napkin Man” announcing “Napkin 2.0,” which apparently involves “high-definition napkins” (shown here) imprinted with ad messages. Not content with the 2.0 by itself, Napkin Man goes on to explain that Napkin 2.0 is “viral.” Though I really hope people don’t share napkins. That’s not 2.0; that’s gross.

bub.blicio.us:

Business 2.0 had great times, but this year, its revenue practically dissipated. This is somewhat ironic considering that an entirely new Web 2.0 economy had finally gathered enough momentum to sustain the life of Business 2.0, and even Red Herring, but alas it wasn’t meant to be.

This is not unlike what other print publications will face in the near future however.

Executives at Time Inc. gave the pub and its employees a two month reprieve while it entertained offers from Fast Company publisher Mansueto Ventures among others. Hey, with a 623,000 name-circulation list, you might think that someone would value it enough to pay a premium. However, Time decided that it would rather let that list evaporate than give it to a competitor.

Jeff Jarvis:

If there ever was a magazine that should have been primarily online and primarily a community, it was Business 2.0. But no, it’s dead now. And that’s a shame.

Why the hell it didn’t start online or transition to online is beyond me. Business 2.0 should not have been a product but a community; it could have been the magazine that shows how that’s done.

Mark Glaser:

To best understand the final demise of Business 2.0, you need to go back to April 2006 when Time Inc. announced with great fanfare a new Business and Finance Network that combined the sales forces of Fortune, Money, Fortune Small Business and Business 2.0 magazines, along with the CNNMoney.com online portal. The idea was to have a unified group selling all the titles so there would be less overhead costs and a simpler pitch to advertisers from one person instead of four.

But for Business 2.0, the Time Inc. strategy was the kiss of death. The magazine lost its dedicated sales force, and Fortune salespeople were less interested in selling Business 2.0 than Fortune. Worse yet, the people who could have made the new strategy succeed — the magazine publishers atop each publication — were demoted to regional sales staff positions, demoralizing them, according to one former longtime Business 2.0 staffer. (The former employee would only speak to me without attribution because of the sensitivity of the subject.)

TechCrunch:

I first heard about Business 2.0 in 1998 when I saw a billboard on the 101 freeway near South San Francisco that advertised it, before the first issue came out. In 2001 it was sold to Time Warner, who’ve done little to grow the brand, and some say they were somewhat proactive in destroying it, always favoring the (in my opinion) sterile business magazine Fortune.

The magazine was one of the first major media publications to cover TechCrunch, exactly one year ago in an article written by Paul Sloan and Paul Kaihla. That article, by the way, was the source of the infamous images of me smoking a cigar and burning $100 bills (I’ve since learned that you don’t actually have to do what the photographer tells you to do).

Rack 'Em, Danno

Check out this clever magazine rack! Well, this is more of a rack/table hybrid, and it's definitely different.

 

Here is what New York magazine says about this great piece of furniture:

If you’re like a lot of New Yorkers we know, you hang on to your magazines for months and months, yet storing them all remains a dilemma. Those stacks piled up in the bathroom? Not pretty. Satina Turner has designed a clever solution: a table that doubles as a very stylish magazine rack. Just drop the magazines in the slots and voilà! The spines face out, so you’ll always know which pub you’re reaching for. Plus, the flat surface makes for a perfectly functional coffee table.

[This one was discovered by some the best scourers on the internet, the team at BoingBoing.]

Get Crafty with Less

You need just two items to make this happen: a magazine and a glue gun.

Now get to work!

She Still Wants Her British Vogue Cover (Even After the Six She Forgot)

Was Naomi Campbell lying? Because she certainly couldn't have forgotten. How do you appear six times on the cover of a prestigious fashion magazine only to exclaim later that you asked and asked but were never allowed?:

"I've never been on the cover of British Vogue and I've asked a million times and they've always refused me," Campbell insisted at the Blacks in Fashion event.

"They'll put the same white model for half the year — I swear like six times, but wouldn't put me on once in my own country. But I still want my British Vogue cover!"

And to cite racism as the reason? That's both bizarre and a disservice to real arguments about lack of color on magazine covers.

Perhaps Naomi Campbell is making all this noise about racist fashion rag editors who prefer a lighter shade of pale because her career is coming to a dead halt. I think there is some validity to her proclamation that white models get preferences on editorial pages over their minority counterparts, but to make such asinine statements as, "I asked but they refused," does nothing to highlight the disparity. In fact, it takes away from it.

A Little on the Top

If you like architecture you probably appreciate print design, too, which is why I point you to the  blog magCulture for a fascinating look at a European magazine called Volume that is really pushing  boundaries with their typography and other style elements.

Jeremy Leslie, editor of magCulture has lots more photos from the latest issue. I'm not the least bit artistic, but looking at images from that dazzlingly designed read made me slightly inspired. I want to get crazy with some crayons or something.

Procrastinate Further: Get Organized

I have organizational problems. I save every file to my desktop, have a catch all box in my house with everything from combs to bills in it and keep "neat piles" of everything else. I organize purely out of necessity, and I'm terrible at it. Which is why I need to get my hands on this bi-monthly read made for people like me. (Okay, made for people whom I need to emulate.) This neatnik blogger loves Organize, the magazine:

Have you seen the new Organize magazine yet? When our first issue arrived, I literally stopped cleaning my sock drawer to devour its hundreds of tips and tricks. In fact, I marked so many pages as ideas, that I ran out of tape flags. That is a great magazine. In fact, we’ve been so busy reorganizing our life from their great articles that we almost dog-eared the first issue before sharing it with you. [Read more.]

I could definitely use some tips and tricks on how to clean up my clutter, and this magazine certainly seems to deliver.

Quick Hits

• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this is just straight up copying.
• Cate's looking great in W magazine this month, where she reveals she decides her roles by using luck sometimes.

• Isn't the whole idea of a festival with your name attached to self-congratulate? Remember when alt-weeklies didn't suck?
• PC Magazine takes the iPod Touch for a test drive. Somehow their hands did not burn up from the hip hotness.
• Mary-Kate Olsen tells Bazaar why she wears rat nest hair--she wanted to be "white trash."
• Do you ever not buy magazines because of scented perfume ads inside?

How the Ford Aspire Didn't Make the List I Will Never Know

Time has come up with yet another ranking list, this one about the Worst 50 Cars of All Time:

On the 50th anniversary of the Ford Edsel, TIME and Dan Neil, Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive critic and syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, look at the greatest lemons of the automotive industry.

Time takes on automobiles from every era, including a horseless buggy with a fake horse attached to its front and everybody's favorite lemon, the Etsel. Did you know they made a car that tried to swim, a " vehicle that promised to revolutionize drowning"? Me either, which is why I find this list to be such fun. And I'm not even that big on cars. They even dog on the De Lorean--Doc Brown would not be pleased. They redeem themselves by calling out the hideous Hummer H2. Go see which other rides got the big snub.

Is You Is or Is You Ain't a Wright House?

Attention fans of Frank: New York Magazine has an 8-page spread of Frank Lloyd Wright's last building design, a house built by a Frank freak of the highest order:

In 1950, at 83, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house for a private island on Lake Mahopac, about 50 miles north of New York City. He dreamed it might surpass Fallingwater, his 1935 masterpiece—but then the client ran short of funds, and the house was shelved for almost 50 years. Now, after eight years of planning and construction, the house is finally complete—5,000 spectacular square feet of mahogany, lake stone, hand-troweled cement, and triangular skylights.

But no house, least of all a posthumous construction from the twentieth century’s most famous architect, is an island, and this one has become a particularly hot piece of intellectual real estate. There are those who celebrate its realization: It’s used in the packaging of the Apple-based architecture software that helped bring the design to life and is the subject of an upcoming PBS documentary. And there are its haters: architects, scholars, and amateurs who say it’s not Wright’s real vision—the stones jut too much, the skylights should be flat, not domed, and so on. As it stands, the house is officially unofficial. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s chief executive officer, Philip Allsopp, states bluntly, “It’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright house, because it hasn’t been certified by the foundation.”

Art aficionados and architects far and wide will debate the authenticity of this latest (and greatest?) work. Check out the photos of Petra Island for yourself, then tell us what you think.

What's Your Passion?

Kate O' is a magazine lover who just found two publications that she had no idea existed--Birds and Blooms and WildBird. In a recent blog post she talks about magazines devoted to people's passions:

One of the things that intrigues me about magazines is that, taken as a set, the magazines you bother to subscribe to have an awful lot to say about who you are and what you're passionate about. Of course, not all of our passions have publications dedicated to them, but you might be surprised how many do... [Magazines] seem to represent our best selves: what we, in an ideal world, would be paying attention to.

She's right. This observation is one of the things that I also love about magazines--if you are obsessed with it, there is a magazine about it. Most assuredly. For instance, did you know that there is a magazine for scrapbookers? And a magazine about ferrets? There is also a magazine about kit planes and toy trains and pontoons and ATV riding? You like beer, don't you? There is even a magazine devoted to rocks.

Seriously, there are so many magazines you probably don't even know are out there, waiting for you. Go explore.

Business 2.0 Bites the Dust

After some spotty speculation it has been announced that Time, Inc. will cease production of Business 2.0, a magazine about "the new economy." Bought in 2001 for more than 30 million dollars, many found Time's purchase  of Business 2.0 to be perplexing, like Nashville blogger and B2B publisher Rex Hammock, who writes:

[B]y July 2001, the reality of the dot.com bust had sunk-in for most folks, but not, apparently, Time Inc. Time’s “eCompany Now” (blast-from-the-past, huh? — how sad is this: eCompany Now doesn’t even have an entry on Wikipedia) then was merged with Business 2.0, as Business 2.0 had a more-established brand and circulation (and Wikipedia entry). The problem was and is, they never saw the advertisers return — and two-months after the purchase was 9/11/2001. It was not a smart purchase, however, the folks at Time were making all sorts of not-smart decisions at the time, so this was the least of their bungles.

As Rex notes, the NY Times is reporting that ten staffers from Business 2.0 will be heading to the Fortune headquarters to help with that magazine's technology coverage. Good news for Fortune, I guess.

This latest death leaves the web savvy to wonder: Are people hanging their proverbial hats on this "2.0" thing, much like they did before the dot-com crumble? Media outlet, e-commerce sites and other internet industries can't stop talking about those magic numbers, as if the mystical "2.0" will pull them out of the red. Everyone wants their site built in "2.0." Everyone wants to get on the "2.0" train. But does anyone really and truly know what it means?

I'll be interested to see how rival Fast Company does after Business 2.0's wake. Commenters at TechCrunch seem sad to see the rag go, yet none of them mention Fast Company, though they do mention Inc. Interesting.

Moore's Mane

Julianne Moore is featured on the cover of the twice yearly Another magazine, and the image is arresting.

I love this cover. Julianne Moore is one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood in my humble opinion, and this amazing shot makes her even more bewitching than usual. I also dig the sparseness of the cover, with only her name and "Beyond Fashion" below the masthead.

Do you know about Another magazine? It is a fashion magazine for men and women only published twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. It's thick and well made, with super glossy pages holding the season's hottest wears at prices you could never afford. Think Vogue, but more artsy. It's like W, but hipper. 

Do You Recognize This Woman?

Fans of the comely and curvaceous America Ferrera are rightly miffed at the recent cover of Glamour magazine that shaves a bit off of her famous form.

Readers who are familiar with the "Ugly Betty" actress' bodacious body should immediately recognize the blatant Photoshoppery going on in the Glamour cover image. Why are her arms so thin? Those skinny limbs don't match the rest of her body, which also looks to have been beaten by the healing brush. The neck color isn't the same shade as the rest of her overly shadowed skin. She looks like she's made of Play-Doh.

I wonder what Heather at Musings from the Monkey Book wonders: Why do Hollywood and the media constantly celebrate the non-starved look of players like America, only to Photoshop them into oblivion? Are they pretending to like the average woman waist size to appear more authentic to viewers and consumers? Sadly, this isn't relegated to stars who make headlines for not caving into stick-thin peer pressure...they do it to the thin ones, too.