May 7, 2017
6 reasons why magazines are going out like powdered wigs
I have a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. At least, I think it’s the real Rolling Stone Magazine. It is about half the thickness of what Rolling Stone Magazine used to be and is issued twice per month. Is this because it’s the 50th Anniversary year? I have no idea.
When is the last time you actually bought a magazine, much less actually read one? I fly frequently and every flight I see people reading the last refuge of a scoundrel: the airlines magazine. Maybe the batteries died on their iPads. Maybe they are tired of looking at the pictures in their camera roll. I doubt that the reason is a love of magazines.
There is a Seinfeld episode (The Reverse Peephole) in which Jerry pulls out a wallet, and Kramer makes fun of him telling him that, “Wallets went out with powdered wigs!”
Magazines are going out like powdered wigs and here are six reasons why.
- Too many advertising cards — The next time you are at a Barnes & Noble (if you can still find one in business), go to the magazine rack and pick up any magazine. Hold it loosely by the binding and shake the magazine and make it rain. Undoubtedly you will see several advertising cards fall out. Have you ever actually filled out one of these cards to buy something? Exactly.
- Useless table of contents — Magazines have a table of contents, which is absolutely useless. Have you ever tried to find an article listed in the table of contents? Why is it so hard? Because there aren’t page numbers on every page of the magazine! Imagine any book that has random pages without page numbers. This would certainly cause grief for anyone who purchased L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics.
- Who cares about the editor — Many magazines have a section in the beginning with some sort of commentary from the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. Who cares who the editor is or what he or she thinks?Presumably his or her editorial style is already all over the articles throughout the magazine because that’s the editor’s job! If the editor has something to say, put it in an article and eliminate this wasted page.
- Letters to the editor — Traditionally people have read magazines for the specific content and professional writing. Why read letters written by other readers about the last issue that you may not have even read? Now, when I read online articles I find some of the best content in the comments after the article, but that’s because it’s current and generally uncensored. The letters from readers only serve to make those readers happy that they got a letter published in the magazine. This is like the ABC television show What Would You Do with the sole purpose of stroking the ego of John Quinones.
- Too many ads — If I have to turn three or more pages of ads to get to the content, this is unacceptable. In fact, why are there any ads at all? I have already paid for the magazine. It’s not like it’s free and ad-supported. If I watch a free video on YouTube, fine I will live with an ad. But, if I’ve already bought a magazine for $7.95, why should I see any ads at all? The “baby” Rolling Stone magazine dated March 23, 2017 has a total of 58 pages. There are 13 full-page ads, a whopping 22.4% of the magazine! This does not include the smaller ads sprinkled throughout the pages.
- Articles continued in the back of the magazine — Let’s say despite the missing page numbers you find the article you want to read. You are casually reading it, and suddenly 75% into the article you see a note that the story is continued on some page in the back of the magazine. When I see that note I have finished reading the article. I have no time to search for the rest of the story, Paul Harvey. Why can’t I just read the entire story without wasting time searching for the end?
Magazines are going out like powdered wigs. Any content you can find in a magazine you can find in a book (with every page numbered and without ads) or online in virtually any format you want.
A good place to start? Articles on Medium!
