Today we look back at the magazine industry news stories that distracted us from all the bad industry news and gave us hope for an industry in transition:
1. Indie magazines ban together: As we just mentioned this year was a tough one for magazine survival; so when we heard indie magazines like Dwell and Fast Company were partnering with other indie magazines to keep costs down, share best practices and gain buying power with vendors--we felt a much-needed pang of optimism.
2. Magazines celebrate longevity: Amidst the mass magazine deaths several of our favorite magazines celebrated anniversaries: People magazine and Vegetarian Times turned 35; Seventeen magazine matured to 65; Interview hit 40; and Instyle magazine celebrated 15 years. Still, there were many others with significant birthdays.
3. Paste magazine's reader-donation campaign: This was the story of the indie entertainment/music magazine that could for 2009; Paste magazine gave demise the hand, humbly appealed to readers and made it through the storm with donations of more than $250,000.
4. Glamour magazine gets self-confidence right: While Self magazine bombed with the Kelly Clarkson-retouch debacle, Glamour magazine featured not-so-perfect model Lizzi Miller along with a story on body image and self-confidence called "What Everyone But You Sees About Your Body." Readers responded joyfully to see an average-size woman in the pages of a women's magazine.
5. Commemorative magazines boost newsstand sales: We said it before and we're saying it again, even though it's morbid, every magazine from People and Us Weekly to Jet, Time and Newsweek featured a Michael Jackson tribute issue. Readers responded and newsstand sales increased.
6. Several magazines were creative in various ways with their covers. Not everything worked, but we’re giving magazines an A for effort, even if those efforts were a bit gimmicky and desperate. Stand-outs include the much-debated practice of putting ads on covers; Esquire magazine’s various cover experiments; Us Weekly magazine’s fake cover; The Atlantic's four metro covers; House Beautiful magazine's pouch ad; and the list goes on.
7. And finally, we definitely felt warm and fuzzy when we watched the Magazine Publishers of America's video on "Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines," which highlights some positive magazine facts.
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