I don’t quite know how to begin discussing this cohesively, but there’s a definite problem facing the magazine industry. Well, at least the section of the magazine industry I’m interested in.
Yesterday, Jane announced it was folding.
Today, I found out Punk Planet is ending.
I’m obviously more upset with the Punk Planet news, which I only found out about because I happened to pick up the last issue at Rosemont’s bookstore. But Jane is worth mentioning as well considering the kind of publication it was intended to be.
Jane was started by Jane Pratt as a follow up to Sassy – essentially to cater to the grown up girls Sassy left behind. For awhile I was reading Jane pretty regularly, but eventually felt a shift as the magazine’s publisher merged with Condé Nast, and even more so when Jane Pratt left the magazine itself. While it wasn’t the best young women’s magazine, it was better than the vapid recycled articles of Cosmo or Marie Claire. This past weekend, while delayed in the Providence airport for an hour, I popped by a book vendor and picked up my first issue in at least a year. I read the entire thing on my flight home and have to say: It sucked. The entire thing was such a mess, start to finish, from the design and layout to the article content. The issue I bought is this one (now the last issue, I guess) and several times while reading I thought to myself, What the hell am I looking at? It was just so…disorganized and …empty? So much of the writing seemed like fluff. Oh, and that “You + This Move = Sex Goddess” headline on the cover? The move was rated a 4 by the girl and a “6, I guess” from the guy in the test couple. How that makes you a sex goddess, I don’t know, and when I realized this was the move they were boasting about on the cover I actually thought, “Congratulations, Jane. You’ve become Cosmo Lite.” How completely disappointed I was.
Punk Planet, on the other hand, is going under due to some bad distribution deals, which explains a lot. I used to steal Kelly’s issues of Punk Planet when they came in the mail, and when her subscription ended I would buy it whenever I saw it on the newsstands. In the past couple years, though, I stopped seeing it so much, not even at the now-defunct Tower Records, and now I know why. Because their distributor went under and lost a lot of newsstand spots. This led to less issues being sold, led to the loss of ad sales, led to the demise of the publication. Sad.
I guess my point in mentioning all of this is that there are so little interesting magazine publications out there. With so many magazines being owned by huge publishing conglomerates, everything seems to be a copy of a copy of a copy and it’s distressing. Not to mention boring.
It worries me, this crazy industry that I’ve decided to make my living in.
Yesterday, Jane announced it was folding.
Today, I found out Punk Planet is ending.
I’m obviously more upset with the Punk Planet news, which I only found out about because I happened to pick up the last issue at Rosemont’s bookstore. But Jane is worth mentioning as well considering the kind of publication it was intended to be.
Jane was started by Jane Pratt as a follow up to Sassy – essentially to cater to the grown up girls Sassy left behind. For awhile I was reading Jane pretty regularly, but eventually felt a shift as the magazine’s publisher merged with Condé Nast, and even more so when Jane Pratt left the magazine itself. While it wasn’t the best young women’s magazine, it was better than the vapid recycled articles of Cosmo or Marie Claire. This past weekend, while delayed in the Providence airport for an hour, I popped by a book vendor and picked up my first issue in at least a year. I read the entire thing on my flight home and have to say: It sucked. The entire thing was such a mess, start to finish, from the design and layout to the article content. The issue I bought is this one (now the last issue, I guess) and several times while reading I thought to myself, What the hell am I looking at? It was just so…disorganized and …empty? So much of the writing seemed like fluff. Oh, and that “You + This Move = Sex Goddess” headline on the cover? The move was rated a 4 by the girl and a “6, I guess” from the guy in the test couple. How that makes you a sex goddess, I don’t know, and when I realized this was the move they were boasting about on the cover I actually thought, “Congratulations, Jane. You’ve become Cosmo Lite.” How completely disappointed I was.
Punk Planet, on the other hand, is going under due to some bad distribution deals, which explains a lot. I used to steal Kelly’s issues of Punk Planet when they came in the mail, and when her subscription ended I would buy it whenever I saw it on the newsstands. In the past couple years, though, I stopped seeing it so much, not even at the now-defunct Tower Records, and now I know why. Because their distributor went under and lost a lot of newsstand spots. This led to less issues being sold, led to the loss of ad sales, led to the demise of the publication. Sad.
I guess my point in mentioning all of this is that there are so little interesting magazine publications out there. With so many magazines being owned by huge publishing conglomerates, everything seems to be a copy of a copy of a copy and it’s distressing. Not to mention boring.
It worries me, this crazy industry that I’ve decided to make my living in.
Labels: Observations
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