Are magazines archaic?

[Beach Runner]

A couple of the magazines for which I have had subscriptions for many years have gone bye-bye. Gourmet . Southern Accents . Newsweek is getting skinnier by the week. Can't decide about Southern Living. They have so many references to their online info.

Excuse me, but I can't get Internet connections in south Alabama and north Florida when I'm a passenger in our vehicle on the way to/from the beach. Reading a magazine is independent of Internet access. Plus if I accidentally drop a magazine into a pool, it doesn't cost as much as dropping an electronic device into a pool.

Should I/we just stop subscribing to magazines? It *is* greener. But somehow I just find it more tangibly satisfying to flip through the pages of a magazine than going online.


Where's my cane? LOL.

 

[Rita]

A couple of the magazines for which I have had subscriptions for many years have gone bye-bye. Gourmet . Southern Accents . Newsweek is getting skinnier by the week. Can't decide about Southern Living. They have so many references to their online info.

Excuse me, but I can't get Internet connections in south Alabama and north Florida when I'm a passenger in our vehicle on the way to/from the beach. Reading a magazine is independent of Internet access. Plus if I accidentally drop a magazine into a pool, it doesn't cost as much as dropping an electronic device into a pool.

Should I/we just stop subscribing to magazines? It *is* greener. But somehow I just find it more tangibly satisfying to flip through the pages of a magazine than going online.


Where's my cane? LOL.

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Agree, although I read online a lot - much more than I ever thought I would. There's something about the look of hard copy also that is often more pleasing than online.

Newsweek is merging with the Daily Beast: Newsweek-Daily Beast deal imminent - On Media - POLITICO.com


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[Beach Runner]

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Agree, although I read online a lot - much more than I ever thought I would. There's something about the look of hard copy also that is often more pleasing than online.

Newsweek is merging with the Daily Beast: Newsweek-Daily Beast deal imminent - On Media - POLITICO.com


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So I've heard. My favorite column in Newsweek is "Conventional Wisdom."

 

[GoodWitch58]

I saw the best answer to that question in a magazine the other day. (I'll look for it and post)

something to the effect that "instant coffee did not cause coffee to become archaic--and the Internet won't cause magazines to..."

I love finding information quickly on the Internet, and I do enjoy the Kindle more than I thought I would; but, I'm with you, there is just something more when you pick up a great magazine to read....

 

[Beach Bimmer]

...there is just something more when you pick up a great magazine to read....

Our household has been a regular subscriber to Coastal Living in print. Received the latest copy in the mail last week, only to realize that it was the thinnest issue they've put out in 2010..

...and it looks like they're now on their third editor within the past 12 months...

Sad to see a long-time favorite suffering

 

[TreeFrog]

It's hard times for "traditional" media in general. Books, CDs, magazines, newspapers.

My worries are two:
1-Are we becoming more dependent on visual sources, i.e. TV? If so, our information and resulting knowledge will be less comprehensive. Not to mention coming from fewer sources.
2-Permanance and ownership are both less sure with digital. If you buy a book/CD/magazine, you have it. Can you be sure you will still have access to today's digital download 10 years from now?

 

[Smiling JOe]

our news and fashion ALREADY comes from fewer sources because many of these magazines are owned by the same publisher. They are chopping the less profitable mags, and most are going to online publications which are much cheaper to "publish and distribute," and they can track their customers' clicks on adds. Target ads also pay more, and the distribution can be much higher, online. Look at my favorite mag, Garden and Gun. Great magazine, easy to read through and great photos. Each story in the printed version makes me want to read it. That is a rare quality in magazines. They also have an online magazine, but it has a very different feel. In addition to that, they have started blogs within the magazine, and they have a facebook page.

Media is changing rapidly and we "ain't seen nothin' yet." As the pipeline (bandwidth) gets wider and faster, we will be seeing more video media and less static print.

I grew up in a family which received numerous magazines and we saved every issue of every magazine for whatever reason. I really don't want that myself, so I don't subscribe. I want to simplify, and for me, that means having access (online, or on computer file) to archives, but not having to store the physical magazines.

TreeFrog brings up a good point about the potential for all digital information to disappear, but if that happens, we won't likely have banking info retained either, and therefore, the world as we know won't be the same. You will care more about having canned tuna to eat rather than the Homes and Lifestyles issue from Oct 2011.

This print magazine shift has been continuing for many years. When was it that AOL and Time Warner merged? They knew that print was going away and that online media was the future as it was the only way to save $$$$$ on cost.

 

[Beach Runner]

I hear what you're saying, SJ. But I don't like extended reading from electronic media, especially textbooks. When I teach out of a new text, I get the ebook for classroom projection of images, etc. But I also get a hardcopy of the book. I like underlining important info and handwriting my personal notes in the margins. I learn the material better (yes, most of what I teach didn't exist five years ago) so that I can be better prepared for class.

BTW we received free copies of Garden and Guns for a while. I don't get it.

 

[scooterbug44]

I find that for many magazines it is sort of a "chicken/egg" situation - did readership decline because the magazine declined or did the magazine decline because the readership declined and costs got cut?

There are some classics that I will always subscribe to - Smithsonian, National Geographic - but many others I stopped subscribing to because I don't like them as much. And I don't keep the back issues - if I find something interesting I tear it out and keep that.

Bon Appetit and the Walton Sun are 2 recent examples where I decided I would rather have the trees than read them.

 

[Beach Runner]

I find that for many magazines it is sort of a "chicken/egg" situation - did readership decline because the magazine declined or did the magazine decline because the readership declined and costs got cut?

There are some classics that I will always subscribe to - Smithsonian, National Geographic - but many others I stopped subscribing to because I don't like them as much. And I don't keep the back issues - if I find something interesting I tear it out and keep that.

Bon Appetit and the Walton Sun are 2 recent examples where I decided I would rather have the trees than read them.

I hear ya on the newspapers. I was sad when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stopped delivering here and we had to go electronic. But now I love it because (a) the AJC is mostly ads, and (b) I don't have to go to the recycling center as frequently because I no longer receive huge stacks of newspapers every week.

As far as recipes go, I'd just as soon go to smittenkitchen or Food Network online.