When was the last time you bought a magazine?

[Redwineandroses]

I've realised I haven't bought a magazine for a few years now! I used to buy OK! magazine every week and Red every month, plus the odd one here and there and I'd often read one in the bath.

My teens don't ever buy them whereas when I was a teen I loved Smash Hits, Top of the pops, More(!) magazine!

I'm wondering if the traditional magazine is dying out and will soon become a thing of the past?

I have a BBC good food magazine from 2014, that's probably the last time I bought a glossy one...

I also have a Private Eye subscription, I call it my comic. But our postal service is so terrible now that I'm thinking of cancelling and going back to buying it at the shop instead. Last edition came out 10 days ago and still hasn't arrived

I buy Private Eye occasionally.

I bought a recipe magazine this month as some of the recipes looked good (there was a Halloween one I wanted to try ), and I get stuck in a rut with the cooking.
Previously the last few Springs either in feb or March I buy the 'kitchen Garden' as it normally comes with several packs of free seeds.
But I consider a magazine like a book bit of a luxury item and can't justify getting one regularly.

I will be getting the dc a Lego one to go in their stockings along with a tangerine and some chocolate coins!

Radio Times every week, Private Eye every two weeks, Norfolk Living every month. Plus numerous newsletters from charities (donkeys, Parkinsons, autism, scleroderma +, organisations I'm a member of London Topographical Society, local history club +

I agree and disagree with this - yes lots of long running jokes but you don't have to read for to long to pick up on them. Plus many of the long running jokes can be found via google - Ugandan relations, Brian and Brenda etc.

But its the scoops and the actual political scandals and news in detail over political gossip and PR releases which I like. Its worth it for those (and the cartoons and pseuds corner).

I've generally liked the long running parody columns - I loved Sylvie Krin although Dear Bill was in a class of its own.

OP: give it a go. The in jokes can be googled and the densely packed stories of actual news often scoop the mainstream press. And its pretty cheap!

Used to buy Platinum but gone off it a bit recently. Sometimes buy New Scientist or a photography magazine for a long journey.

Before Covid pandemic. On holiday in 2019.

My son bought me a subscription to a woman's magazine last Christmas which has been great. My Bank also offers magazine subscriptions aspart of a package so I get 2 magazines a month. I love receiving them as otherwise I wouldn't go out and buy them.

I love to sit and read a magazine, it’s part of my ‘’me time.’

I bought Cosmopolitan last week for the first time in about 10-12 years as Tom Daley was gracing the front cover, and I adore him so I couldn’t resist. My goodness, the standard of the magazine is now shocking! Everything is just so dumbed down with hardly any text on most of the pages. The articles were really lacklustre too, and I’m convinced there were less pages than back in the day. The fashion section was really small and shite, and there were hardly any articles relating to sex - Cosmopolitan used to be full of sex and relationship articles. I was looking forward to reading about embarrassing sexual encounters, and ‘50 top blow job tips.’ 🤣

I think that’s the problem, so many are just thinly disguised adverts and publicity promotions: for a (self-help) book, a brand, a product, a home designer etc. I’m also put off by some of the covers and wouldn’t buy if I don’t like the celebrity. But it’s mostly about the content.

In my 20s years ago I used to buy Marie Claire every issue and then it became just a book of adverts. When young I use to buy them for the freebie, a lipstick or eye shadow but that also seemed to stop.

Bought Narrowboat and country life on Tesco club card but didn’t renew.

DH also gets Private Eye. I get some of the glossies for the DD if they have Harry Styles on the cover, or TImothy What’s his name etc. I was popping into the WHS at Victoria station every two days to try and get a particular gardening one with Harry Styles on it, but I still missed it.

Good question.

I used to love magazines from my teens to my thirties. But then obviously internet, but even before that became really prevalent the magazine articles became sparser and the advertising more dense. I remember I had a subscription to Red and when I rang to cancel it, they tried to get me to keep it on at £1 for 6 issues - even at that I couldn't be bothered.

I do buy Take a Break puzzle edition for going on holidays and the Radio Times Christmas edition.

Last week, I like leaving through the fashion pages.

Thursday.
It’s a Christmas ideas one.
Couldn’t resist although I won’t actually follow any of the suggestions but it makes me feel happy.

I buy a local current affairs magazine every week - not in UK
Don't buy the fashion ones anymore - I look at Pinterest instead!
I like the British magazine “ Simple Things” and buy that monthly.

About a year or two ago. I'd driven to the beach for a walk and stopped off at a pub for lunch. I bought the mag (interiors decor one) so I'd have something to read while I was waiting for my food to arrive. My phone battery was low or I'd have just read on my phone instead. Before that, it had probably been a good decade or two since I'd bought one. Adult magazines are so expensive for so little content - for a few € more, you can buy an an entire book.

That said, I loved the comics of my childhood - my eldest sister would get Mandy, the next sister would get Bunty and I'd get something like Penny or Judy (after I graduated from Twinkle obviously). After we'd finished our own comics, we'd swap over. My older brother would get The Dandy or Beano or Roy of the Rovers. And always an annual for Christmas. In my teens I moved on to Jackie, Blue Jeans, Just 17 etc.

I've just cancelled my subscriptions (again - I keep trying to love them). Used to adore a glossy mag, but these days the paper is shite, the articles are like tasters and you'd have to go elsewhere to find the whole story and so much of the content appears to be recycled between magazines from the same publisher! And they want more than a fiver. Even with subscriptions, they aren't value for money anymore.

I get why people would buy hobby magazines but general women's glossies have had their day I think. All the ones from my youth are gone anyway, like She and Eve

We do the Radio Times 12 weeks for £1 at this time of year. Time period covers the Christmas issue (which costs much more than £1!) and we cancel in January.

I used to get The Week but realised I wasn't making time to read it. I've had Edge or similar for gadgets/tech/gaming for a train journey but that's definitely pre-Covid. I used to get Mizz when I was a teenager. Haven't ever bought anything like Vogue etc.

I buy Vogue when they are desperately trying to shift it for £2. I keep hoping that it will improve, but it’s still rubbish under Edward Enninful. The last issue I bought featured Timothee Chalamet wanging on about how he can’t be confined to a gender and how talented he thinks he is and how, in the opinion of the writer, he looks fabulous in all kinds of haute couture. Yawn. I actually don’t mind the adverts, of which there are many: I like seeing what the big fashion houses are doing. Also,you can tell that a lot of the content in Vogue is advertorial anyway.

Bazaar is a much better fashion magazine and the photographs are streets ahead but it’s £5.99 or something and I resent paying that much.

At the other end of the scale I bought Take a Break the other week. I used to enjoy laughing at some of the stories years ago (the Kebab van Romeo featured in several) but I was bitterly disappointed. They have obviously used up all the British stories and have resorted to buying content from their US counterparts. You can tell because the protagonists are all called Travis and Britney etc and they never give the locations (in TaB of old, you’d see, eg, “in my kitchen in Newport, Gwent, I sighed and started making Tony’s favourite dinner even though he was cheating on me with Elaine from the labour club”). Boo to Take a Break. And the stories have moved from infidelity to murder and other unpleasant crimes, so it is a different magazine now.

The dc get The Phoenix, National Geographic Kids and The Week Junior. Also used to get The Guinea Pig but that’s either ceased publication or I’ve missed a subscription renewal demand.

For the last few years I’ve bought a lot of interiors mags, but not so much now our renovations are winding up. I bought Elle Decor on the date it came out every month, loved looking forward to it and saying stuff to Dh like “Look I’ve found the perfect wallpaper for the downstairs loo; it’ll only cost £14,000.”

I have a fondness for the even more ridiculous scandi/hipster architecture/interiors ones, featuring scorched wooden chalets in isolated locations with concrete kitchens and entire glass walls. Sadly DF is refusing to go for this aesthetic in his retirement bungalow, despite me leaving these mags lying around for him.

I’m going on a plane on Friday so will probably treat myself to a fashion magazine. Although last time I couldn’t find one I liked the look of.

Monday as I was going on a flight. That's the only time I do these days. I have access to most magazines digitally but hate reading them in that format.

I did a parenting group a while back and one week we needed to bring in old magazines for a crafty thing. Literally everyone turned up with just the freebie ones from the supermarket.
Does Asda still do their freebie one? I haven't seen it for ages.
I pick up the Tesco one. Forget to use any vouchers in it, look at the recipes and go "that looks good", never actually make any of the recipes 😂

Yes! Every worth penny. It’s very funny and you often read about scandals and other interesting snippets about politics and tax months and years ahead of the rest of the British press. Out fortnightly and it’s not an expensive subscription. I also buy one for DF for Christmas.