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Gone But Not Forgotten: A Last Farewell to Magazines Lost in 2009

It’s the last day of 2009 and before we switch gears and celebrate the New Year and all the things it will bring, we’re taking one last look back at some of the magazines that went under in 2009. We lost so many but here we pay our respects to our favorites.

In no certain order:

Southern Accents, b. 1977. Southern Accents was a celebration of quintessential Southern style: classic interiors, stunning gardens, gracious living, sophisticated entertaining and more. Southern Accents truly captured the Southern lifestyle.  The Birmingham, Alabama-based Southern Accents was a part of Southern Progress Corporation., owned by Time, Inc., and was published six times a year. And though the magazine’s companion website will continue, it’s just not the same.

Domino, b. 2005. Domino’s readers didn’t let this modern-living shelter magazine go quietly. Readers posted their disappointment over the magazine’s January demise in droves and with so much passion that The New York Times wrote about it. Even though circulation was strong and growing, NYT said, the cold hard truth was that the ad numbers were not. And if we learned anything in 2009, it’s that the ad numbers matter.

Gourmet, b. 1941. When Conde Nast shut down the venerable Gourmet magazine, the food world nearly fainted. And while the economy, competition from food blogs and possibly a wandering editorial focus were blamed, we don’t care what the recipe was. The end of Gourmet magazine—the first American magazine to concentrate on food and wine—was the end of an era. 

I.D. magazine, b. 1954. I.D. magazine or The International Design magazine, covered the art, business and culture of design. It won five National Magazine Awards, including three wins for general excellence. I.D. was a small bimonthly that reached iconic status in the design community. Its demise is a huge loss for the world of innovative design. Reasons for its closing amounted to the downturn in print advertising plus the “fragmentation and specialized information needs of I.D.'s core readers (product designers) and the plethora of information resources available to them.”

National Geographic Adventure, b. 1999. National Geographic Adventure—a spinoff focused on outdoor adventure and travel—started as a quarterly and had built up an impressive half a million paying readers. It also won four National Magazine Awards, including one for general excellence in 2002. Like almost every shuttered magazine this year, National Geographic Adventure’s print advertising was down. The magazine’s publisher tried to sell the magazine but the attempt was in vain—the magazine would have to survive with only part of its name—Adventure.

Metropolitan Home, b. 1974. Metropolitan Home started as a special interest publication in 1969 for the Woodstock generation and then in 1974 became a regularly published magazine called Apartment Living. In 1981, as Baby Boomers grew up and became home-owners, publisher Meredith Corp. renamed the magazine Metropolitan Home. The magazine became known for its accessible features on home design and renovation. Hachette Filipacchi bought the shelter magazine—by then an influential design lifestyle magazine—in 1992.  Like Gourmet, Metropolitan Home’s ad pages fell dramatically earlier this year and Hachette Filipacchi decided to close the magazine and focus its efforts on Met Home sister publication, Elle Décor.

Magazines.com Customers Agree, Food Network Magazine Best New Magazine of 2009

Of the 275 new magazines that launched in 2009, industry experts easily determined Food Network Magazine is the best. Along with other magazine readers, Magazines.com customers responded quickly and positively to the new food magazine.

    Driven by chef-personalities that are at least familiar to and at best beloved by readers, Food Network magazine’s content connected with readers. Its colorful layouts that stray from other food and cooking magazine formats have also been a hit. Each generously illustrated issue is chock-full of seasonal recipes, entertaining ideas, tips and cooking techniques from chefs like Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Guy Fieri and many more.

    In 2008 Hearst Magazines, publisher of Food Network magazine, predicted its new food magazine would have a paid circulation of 300,000 by the summer—a vigorous—even cocky—total given the poor economic climate. By May 2009, any naysayers were silenced when that total reached more than 900,000. Given the astounding growth, The New York Times reported this made Food Network one of the 100 best-selling American magazines. This month MediaFinder.com reported the magazine has reached more than 1 million readers.

    Among the industry experts that recognized Food Network magazine’s success story are Mr. Magazine; he bestowed the honor of “Most Notable Launch” to the magazine and wrote in a recent Folio magazine article that “Food Network Magazine went after readers in direct response to market research that showed that an overwhelming number of Food Network viewers wanted—no, demanded—a print publication.”

    Minonline also awarded it “Best Launch,” as part of its annual editorial and design awards, noting “The reason for this success is simple: Hearst rethought the layout and structure of food magazines.”

    Also singing the new magazine’s praises—Magazines.com customers. Since its addition to Magazines.com in April, Food Network magazine has remained in our top 10 best-selling magazines in the highly competitive cooking and food category and has made appearances in our top 10 overall best-selling magazines, a list that includes long-established magazines like People magazine, Cooking Light and Good Housekeeping.

When we asked Magazines.com customers to post reviews of their favorite magazines to our site, Food Network magazine was among the most-reviewed. A few reader-written reviews we received include: 

“I am an avid fan of the Food Network channel, so I was especially excited to buy my first copy of Food Network Magazine. I have always loved to cook and try new recipes. I have subscribed to, or purchased just about every cooking magazine on the market. Food Network magazine is in a class all its own. I will save every issue for reference; not just for recipes, but for a multitude of helpful hints.”

“I'm a Food Network Fan and love this magazine. It's great to hear from our favorite show chefs. Food Network Magazine is very informative; I learn something new every month. It has great recipes too!”

“I've recently become interested in cooking and baking at home. I received a free issue of Food Network Magazine in the mail and was instantly hooked! The recipes are easy and delicious. My favorite feature of this magazine is a section where they copy a restaurant food (ex. Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay biscuits) and provide the recipe. They're dead on! Love this magazine!”

What do you think, is Food Network magazine the best new magazine of 2009? Did you subscribe to Food Network Magazine this year?

Best Good Magazine News of 2009

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.

8 Best Magazine Covers of 2009

Just like everyone else, we feel the need to weigh in on the best/worst of 2009. So that’s what we’re all about this week—the best and worst in magazines. Today we start out with our picks for best magazine covers. We define best by a combination of criteria including buzz-worthiness, history-making, inventive or just memorable. Of course, there were some covers that people talked about—a lot—that we decided we didn’t want to include because we’re tired of them. Example: There was a lot of buzz surrounding various GQ magazine covers that featured mostly-naked celebrities including comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and Jennifer Aniston. Those covers did not make our list.  But the follow magazine covers did, in no certain order:

1. The New Yorker magazine: In May artist Jorge Colombo's iPhone finger-painted scene of Times Square appeared on the New Yorker's June 1st cover. Though we're still a little cynical about the Apple ad tie-in, we still think the cover art is clever.

2. Time magazine: Of course almost every magazine had a Michael Jackson tribute cover this year but only one was out first: Time. News of the King of Pop's death broke on the Internet on Thursday; Time magazine's issue was out on Monday.

3. Vogue magazine: First Lady Michelle Obama became only the second first lady (Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first) to grace the cover of Vogue magazine's March issue. As the Washington Post noted at the time, Mrs. Obama's appearance on the fashion industry bible communicates a modern event--the intersection of power and beauty.

4. Self magazine: Back in August Self magazine had the nerve to feature an obviously-retouched Kelly Clarkson on the cover under the headline, "Total Body Confidence." Though the editor defended the move as "inspiring," we along with readers found it lame.

5. Golf Digest: Golf Digest is on the list for the most-ill-timed magazine cover of the year and for the way the editors handled it.

6. O Magazine: Even though Michelle Obama's feat of being the first person to appear on the cover with the talk-show queen is less than spectacular now that Ellen DeGeneres has done it too, this cover made our list for its history-making turn. It could also be on our worst covers list. (Is it just us or does it appear that Mrs. Obama is floating next to Oprah?) 

7. ESPN The Magazine: We love a magazine success story and this is one of the great ones this year. We also love a little competition, so when ESPN The Magazine took on Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue with The Body Issue, we and pretty much everyone else took notice.

8. Newsweek: Last month Newsweek magazine featured a critical story on former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin with the headline,"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" along with a photo of Palin in an exercise outfit and sneakers, which was originally taken to accompany a profile in Runner's World magazine. Palin wrote on her Facebook page that the photo choice was "unfortunate" and goes on to blast Newsweek's photo decision as "out-of-context and sexist."

Merry Christmas from Magazines.com!

"To kids from one to ninety-two, although it's been said many times, many ways, a very merry Christmas to you!"

You're Still Not Done Shopping?!

So it’s December 24. Christmas is tomorrow. And you still have some shopping to do. No judgment here—we’ve all been there. And so we’re going to take this time (again, we know) to remind you that magazine subscriptions are pretty darn good gifts (They last all year!) and that you can send an instant e-mail gift announcement or print one out and wrap it right now.

You can of course order online anytime. But—and we realize this is kind of old-fashioned, but we are into nostalgia—we have people (our customer care team) here that will answer if you call our toll-free number, 800-624-2946, today from 7am to 2pm CST today.

So, whether you’re in need of something for Grandma, your mother-in-law, your husband’s step-dad, a precocious kid, your hipster cousin or you simply want some stocking stuffers, we’ve got something for everyone—including deals that don't expire until tomorrow. If you can’t figure out which magazine to pic, we’ve got gift cards too.

Happy last-minute shopping!

No More Tiger Woods' Scandal Magazine Covers?

That may be the case because The Huffington Post reports that sources with access to weekly magazine sales numbers told their reporter that figures for last week's issues of In Touch, OK! magazine and US Weekly, which all featured Tiger Woods on their covers, were flops. The only successful cover? People magazine, which featured Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren.

Even though we're relieved of this outcome, we're still wondering why magazines featuring Tiger's scandal didn't sell better on the newsstands? There are a few theories: the Huffington Post throws out the race card; other celebrity magazine editors speculate readers didn't connect with Woods' and his family because the golfer is generally so private and everyone tired of the news of yet another celebrity allegedly cheating.

In related news, Golf Digest magazine is distancing itself from Woods. The golf magazine has suspended Woods' monthly instructional articles while the superstar is on leave from professional golf.

Sales of Esquire, GQ Magazine iPhone App Editions are Modest

Although not very surprising, neither the January issue of GQ magazine, nor the January issue of Esquire are in Apple's list of the top 100 best-selling paid apps in the App Store, after a few day of sales. Nor is either in Apple's list of the highest-grossing apps, which sorts by revenue generated (versus strictly unit sales), reports The Business Insider.

While Esquire and GQ launched full-issue versions of their magazines, Rodale (publisher of Men's Health and Women's Health among others) went a different direction with a broad series of a dozen branded on-the-go apps, the latest is the “Eat This, Not That” app. It has topped the Healthcare & Fitness paid app chart in the iTunes App Store, Rodale announced today. Even though the app has divided reviews, it broke into Apple’s list of highest-grossing programs over the weekend and was among the top 50 best-selling apps storewide, Rodale reports.

In other digital magazine content news, the partnership to create a digital content service and storefront that includes publishers Time, Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation, has a name: Next Issue Media.

Creative Gift Wrapping Ideas for Magazine Subscriptions from Magazines.com

Magazine subscriptions are great holiday gifts because they last all year long—but how do you wrap them? When it comes to gift-wrapping, packages with flare whether shine, sparkle or color, make giving and receiving more festive and fun. And giving a creatively-wrapped gift doesn't need to cost a lot, take a lot of time or even require crafting expertise.

With this in mind, we're offering fun and creative ways through Christmas on how to wrap gift magazine subscriptions. The resourceful ways appear each day in our gift center and highlight affordable and personalized suggestions for gifts to stand-out under the tree. Some recent gift-wrapping ideas from Magazines.com include:

Create a Subscription Ornament

On a color printer, print the cover of your gift subscription from magazines.com and tape the image to a new ornament. Then, you can hang the ornament on the tree or wrap it up like a gift!

Hand Over the Keys
Pick up a great key ring featuring a favorite car of your car-lover from your local car dealer. Print the magazine cover from Magazines.com, attach it to card stock and trim to size. Punch a hole in the top, and thread it through the key ring.

Fits Like a Glove

Purchase a pair of garden or work gloves and some small tools such as garden shears, weeding tools, a screwdriver, etc. Also, pick up a copy of the magazine you’ve given at your local magazine newsstand. Place the tools together in one glove, and roll up the magazine in the other. Use the gloves as the gift bag, or place them into a gift bag surrounded by tissue paper.

Visit Magazines.com’s Under the Tree idea page for a new, fun and creative way to wrap gift magazine subscriptions through December 25.

Magazines.com 'Staff Picks' Holiday Gift Guide

Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Are you still looking for great stocking stuffer ideas? If you’re still looking for something great to get your special someone(s) then have a look at our staff picks for tried and true picks for gift magazine subscriptions. Still need help? Visit our gift center where you can shop by recipient, price and personality. Happy shopping!

Brenda, operations
I love Simple & Delicious and Healthy Cooking; both are from Taste of Home. Both are filled from start to finish with quick and easy recipes. Simple & Delicious has great features like 30 minute meals, dinners for 4, 6, or more, and meals on a budget. Healthy Cooking provides great ideas for meals that keep the calories under control. I have used these magazines over and over again for cooking and I LOVE them both.

Cindy, customer care
I gave J-14 and Girls’ Life to my 13-year-old daughter again this year for Christmas stocking stuffers. It was a great combo pack and she loves it!

Natalie, customer care
Two of my sisters and I still enjoy Seventeen Magazine for its great hair and fashion tips. For my teenage brother I got a subscription to Car and Driver. He said he doesn’t just look at the pictures, he actually reads the content!

Aparna, merchandising
I love People magazine because I feel it’s a reliable source on celebrity news and happenings. I also love Food Network Magazine because it is a great balance of recipes, tips and photos—it represents everything I love about the TV network.

Heather, customer care
I LOVE Architectural Digest!  If you love architecture and interior design, you will love this magazine! I also love Elle Décor. It is simply gorgeous!  It has such great style, I find myself loosing track of time perusing through the pages.

Cliff, publisher relations
My traveling friends love Conde Nast Traveler because of its mix of exotic destinations and practical travel tips and advice.  My conservative friends tell me they really enjoy National Review for its unique point of view and the short, witty snippets in the front of the magazine.

Heather, marketing
I had so much fun matching magazines to each family members’ personalities for gifts: my dad, a hobbyist and do-it-yourselfer, got a subscription to Machinist’s Workshop, one sister, a newly-licensed cosmetologist, got Hair’s How, and my other sister, who is expecting, got Fit Pregnancy.  It’s such a great way to fill stockings with thoughtful gifts that they actually like!  As for me, each issue of ReadyMade magazine keeps me inspired with all kinds of creative DIY projects.

Jeff, accounting
I love reading Golf Digest because I always pick up at least one pointer in each issue.  Also, their reviews on new golf equipment are second to none.  I have given Sports Illustrated for Kids to both my boys.  They love tearing out the trading cards as each issue arrives in the mailbox.  I read the issue with them as it allows me teachable moments each month so that I can share my love of sports with them.

Joe, marketing
I’m a movie and TV buff, so I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly to get insightful reviews and to keep up on all the latest pop culture news. I have two daughters, and they are always thrilled when they get something in the mailbox. I gave them a subscription to Discovery Girls because they love the quizzes, games, and fashion advice articles.

Tami, marketing
I love Food Network for the great recipes and ideas. I also love Health magazine for all the great medical tips, healthy recipes and healthy living ideas.  My mom started getting this magazine when I was in high school and I have continued to receive it ever since.

Joyce, marketing
I can't pick just one. The Week is one of my favorite magazines – I love the international perspective and the great writing.  This magazine reminds me that there are other perspectives on world news than those we see on television and online.  I spent plenty of time on airplanes this past year and if I happened to be reading this magazine, inevitably the person sitting next to me would comment about how it was one of their favorite magazines too.  I have given The Week as a gift a few times, and it always gets rave reviews.   I’ve found it to be a great gift for the guys on my list.  

And I have to say Us Weekly – I LOVE this magazine!  I convince myself that because I work in marketing I need to be engaged in pop culture to be successful in my job.  This is kind of true, right? This magazine is a guilty pleasure – What’s happening with The Jolie-Pitts and Katie & Tom Cruise?  I need to know!  How are Tom Brady and Giselle doing – and are there any pictures of Tom Brady? I need to know!  
 
And lastly I pick Men’s Health. I do have to qualify my comments because I previously managed the marketing department for the company that publishes this magazine.  But it remains a magazine that I read and always enjoy!    I find the writing entertaining, the articles well researched and interesting, and see it as a “playbook” for understanding guys.  It is a top seller, ranks high in customer satisfaction –it’s a great gift idea!

Marie, marketing
Real Simple magazine is my favorite. I love all the practical solutions for home, the etiquette advice and the product reviews. I got my sister a subscription to this too and it’s fun to talk about our favorite articles on the phone or on Facebook since we live far apart.

And I have to say Consumer Reports too—this truly is the shopping magazine for men. My husband and Dad love it for comparison shopping on gadgets, electronics and appliances; they even rated chocolate chip cookies this year!  I also got my husband subscriptions to Wired and All About Beer—both are big hits.