To feel like there is not one decent women's magazine on the market

[tinierclanger]

They all churn out the same tired old stuff slightly rehashed every now and again, there's no proper journalism, hardly any proper reviews, no insight into anything. They're all so boring!

I agree.

Cosmopolitan in the early 90s (when I started buying it) was brilliant - a real feminist stance.

I haven't read it for years because it is utter shite.

Grazia makes me laugh with its Mary Portas/Lowri Turner/Taylor Momsen obsessions. Crap.

There is nothing else I would choose to read - Red is tripe (all about rich mummies with cuntcake businesses), Elle is trite and pointless, ditto Marie Claire.

another one here who recommends Filament.
Sadly, subtext magazines next issue will be it's last.

TAB is fantastic though.

You really know what you're getting, if something is sad, there will be a picture of a lady looking sad with a caption underneath saying "me. I am sad about this"

or if it's a campaign-y type story like "STOP ALL THIS SILLY THING OVER THERE!" then there will be a picture of a couple, pointing at the silly thing looking angry, with a caption that says "Barbara and Jean with the silly thing, ANGRY?"

And I like the fact that the letters on the last page are edited by "SENSIBLE AND BARMY" and sometimes I think "oh, I wonder if this letter about how much Enid from Romford enjoyed the article about holidays in Turkey" is SENSIBLE or just plain blinking BARMY.

You are right. I didn't realise just how bad women's magazines were until I idly flicked through a copy of GQ while on the loo.
Yes, there is a bit of "LOOK! BOOBS!" but the bulk of it is actually pretty decent journalism -interesting topics with well thought-out opinions by the journalists.

It made me realise that women's magazines are entirely style and fluff and no content.

Oops I meant my olden days as in when I started reading Marie claire way back when! Not implying anything about anyone else!

I REALLY liked Observer Woman mag, which came free with the Observer every month, but they've scrapped it now. [angry}

Dh insists on a joint copy of TAB if we go away.

Oh I so agree. I abandoned wimmins magazines years ago. Every now and then I fancy something to read while waiting in Drs etc and wander into the newsagent, stare at the shelves for a bit, and wander out empty handed again. There is literally nothing that speaks to me out there.

I occasionally buy Private Eye but find some of it rather dry. I don't even bother with special interest type magazines anymore, I can get any information/advice/inspiration I need on-line.

(lol @ cuntcake businesses)

Ah, observer woman I quite enjoyed. Until Dh (yes he keeps cropping up) started referring to it as 'what do women think about men and what men think of them'. But it was ok.

You're right. It's just acres and acres of advertisements with the same crap beauty tipes/ diet fads recycled through.

I have a subscription to the Economist. It was always my go-to magazine before a long flight (much higher article-to-advertisement ratio, and physically easier to read in a confined space than a newspaper) and I just developed a liking for it. I'm not saying the Economist will be everyone's cup of tea, but the suggestion above to look into the special interest section is a good one.

I also read Good Food, and have just used some Tesco points to get a subscription to it.

Agree totally. Marie Claire used to be excellent about 15 years ago, really interesting articles about high achieving women, women's struggles against all sorts of things, women's issues in the developing world etc, was really inspiring. Absolute lightweight tosh now, so disappointing.

The only one I subscribe to now is BBC Good Food. Buy a women's one 3 or 4 times a year and they are just all the same, lightweight drivel.

I sometimes read DH's copies of Word, which although mainly about music, has some very good columns and opinions. Have also been impressed with much of the content of GQ.

There is a real gap in the market isn't there?

JAN - beat the post Xmas blues and get in shape lose 5 lbs in a week with the Munch Bunch diet.

Is he doing it right 10 tips to improve his technique.

FEB What is he doing for you this Valentines.

Is he doing it right 10 tips to improve his technique.

Singletons pig out for Valentine's then follow our top tips to lose 5lbs n a week.

MAR Be a spring bride, follow our top tips to lose 5lbs in a week and look stunning.

APR Easter is here. Pigged out on Easter eggs
follow our top tips to lose 5lbs n a week.

our amazin free gift choclate dildo mould for the best sex eva.

May Sumnmers here the hottest beachwear look hot this summer. Follow our top tips to lose 5lbs in a week and look stunning.

Ad nauseam.

loaded and FHM are just as bad, they were decent when launched not read one for at least 5 years.

I was thinking just this very thing this morning, after greedily grabbing Heat and Grazia which DH's neice had left here for my delectation. What a disappointment! Grazia was nothing but ads for women who are all taller, thinner and richer than me, and was completely pointless. Heat was full of crap about Cheryl Cole and X Factor (which I will admit to watching)- but the thing that really got me going was the 'Hoop of Horror' in Heat. There was a picture of Ashton Merrygold (the pretty one from JLS) with eyebrows badly in need of a pluck and a comment along the lines of "Ashton, how could you go out looking like this?!"

WTF?! Spiteful, smallminded, pointless, and in fact, just plain nasty. What vicious person decided that making this young guy feel bad about his appearance in this very public way was in any way a useful contribution to the world?!

Rant aside, I do like Vanity Fair.

I still like Red, Easy Living, Woman and Home, Good Housekeeping.

Plus the home ones like Living etc.

I still miss Eve and New Woman and Options.

I've stopped buying. They have nothing to tell me.

The interviews are so fawning and the fashion is rediculous, and whenever they talk about work they assume that everyone works in an office 9-5.

I liked ghk for a while years ago. Seemed practical and interesting. Now it is all about making stupid things no one wants and what colour to decorate your front room this month.
I wouldn't call myself a feminist really but I'm so bored of these mags which reduce my interests to cooking and sewing and articles about being best friends. Although I love cooking and sewing, just in a different way.
oh I don't know what I'm talking about.
They are all shite

I had thought it was a sign of getting older or that magazines are rather boring in comparison to the internet interactivity you can get here! You can read a similar type story here then follow everyones reactions, much more lifelike

Ah but wasn't Heat's lowest point was the Harvey debacle? How on earth that got through, I can't imagine (surely the production staff read their own mag?). Don't think they should ever be allowed to forget that.

Completely agree about the need for a thoughtful mag with some substance. It's just not out there is it? Bought Psychologies once but was just a bit like PMT for me. Generally it's the Eye, DH's Word and, if I feel clever, the Economist or London Review of Books. And, ahem, Viz.

I used to buy Grazia as my 'bit of fluff' but there's only so long I could snigger about the 'shoes/Darfur/Alexa Chung/Unimaginable horror and anguish/Capes are Back/female circumcision/skirts' page sequence without feeling that I was a bit, well, diminished by the time I put it down.

And to be honest, MN fills that handbag-sized hole for me now. (I mean replacing mags in general. Not in making me feel diminished - though on second thoughts some of the politics threads have done that too. There you are then - MN. The entire magazine experience.)

But better

You're right, womens mags on the whole are rubbish and are very narrow in their focus. They believe that we all are or aspire to be Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. That we are all tall, thin and whie with lots of disposable income to waste on £400 bags and are obsessed with Alexa Chung, Vicky Beckham, Cheryl Cole and love Gerrard Butler.

They rehash the same articles such as 'Why I gave up my £500k a year job in the city to be a SAHM and live in the country' like that's representative of more than two people in this country.

They all seem very London focused too. They also seem to talk to women as if we're stupid and don't care about serious issues or have varied lives. Grazia's attempts at doing a serious story are laughable. Vogue is just 100 pages of adverts as is Cosmo and Marie Claire is a joke.

Like someone above said, I'm more likely to read the Economist or Vanity Fair these days but I do personally think the days of women's mags are numbered not only because they only seem to cater towards 19 year olds, women just like the mag staff and women who think they are in Sex in the City and will get themselves into debt to buy Jimmy Choo's but because we can find out about celebs, make-up etc online.

I know it's technically a newspaper, but The Economist is very good if you want something more intelligent.

Take a Break is good value.

You've got to laugh at the photos. Like Shirley said, generally a hatchet faced woman in a tabard pointing to a fence, or a bedspread, or soemthing.

YANBU
I used to love magazines but I always feel ripped off if I buy one these days. They are mostly full of adverts and promotions anyway. Booorrrrrring!

First time poster here!

I actually work in publishing - specialist press, not women's magazines and in my opinion they're all just so 'bitty' with not much substance... Everyone here uses Grazia as an example of a magazine which doesn't credit its readers with a very long attention span, they seem to feel the need to keep everything grabby if that makes sense? I think its do do with the internet in a way and the way we're all constantly fed little bits of information (facebook, twitter etc.) - these magazines seem to be responding to this...

Just my thoughts mind...

MN is so much more interesting, but you can't read it in the bath.
I agree also that women's mags are tripe.
I don't want expensive fashion and make up articles, celebs, pages full of glossy ads. I used to be a mag junkie too but I thought it was because i was getting older and all the articles have been rehashed that i now find them boring. ANd they will be even worse the next couple of months because all there will be is how to have the perfect Christmas and dress for Christmas parties. I don't have any of those parties to go to. And they assume all women work in offices - i don't.
I want articles on:
money
Inspirational women (not famous ones)
Affordable fashion for real women
Something that inspires me to be creative.
Something that makes me think - opens my mind to new possibliities.
I want something different

Bah