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!

Try Australian Womens Weekly, as in the people who make the cookery books, it's actually a monthly magazine (I read that they didn't feel they could change their name to Women's Monthly when the magazine became monthly issue!). There is a UK version printed, I get my mum a subscription for her Xmas present, then she passes them onto me when she's read them (win-win arrangement!).

Great thread this is, and I agree wholeheartedly.

I stopped buying mags a while ago after realsing that I prefer looking on the internet at blogs about things I'm actually interested in, current affairs and other people's opinions and comments - things just seem a bit more relevant and live.

But sometimes, I just want something to read in the bath/in bed/on a train - and there's nothing out there that would grab my attention.

I'm 30, I have a normal job and one small child. I want to read about:

-what other people's jobs are like, ie. day in the life type articles (sounds simplistic but I'm interested)

• detailed book, film and TV reviews, not just "5*, a must-see"
• products (whether it be make-up or kitchen utensils) that are recommended by real actual people
• a few true-life stories, but without the sensationalist angle, just, well, what actually happened
• nice things I can buy in Matalan, Tesco and John Lewis at a push
• current affairs, with the odd quirky news story
• inside real people's homes in houses costing less than £250k
• parenting stuff
• a few crosswords and a Sudoku
• some money-off coupons (ha)

Too much to ask?

The thing is, magazines don't actually exist to provide interesting reading. They exist to sell advertising, and they try to tempt us to look at the ads by providing stuff to read/look at on the same pages.

Unfortunately for all us grown-up, intelligent cynical women, we are less likely to spend lots of money on perfume facecream expensive watches unnecessary crap, so we are not an attractive market for advertisers, which is why all the decent magazines we want to read go bust . Luckily, the economics of the internet don't yet work in quite the same way, which is why we have MN and various other readable news sites and blogs .

Magazines all cater to a market - mags like Nova, First, Eve have all gone under because nobody bought them.

Celebrity gossip sells and downmarket real life sells - and that's about it

Nancy66 - I think we all understand the economics of magazines.

In my opinion, Eve was great because it actually had interesting (often left of field) articles which appealed to articulate women. The problem, (I guess) is that intelligent, articulate women (Mumnetters perhaps?) are less likely to be seduced by the gloss and hype of the advertising. There was definitely a niche for it, but in recessionary times, I think that it is understandable that publishers have concentrated on quick wins.

Agree with those posters who miss Eve. I had some special deal subscription and was gutted when they suddenly went bust. I would probably still buy it full price though whereas the others on the market if I buy one I always feel shortchanged once I've finished reading it, especially when you can get a book for only a couple of quid more.

I buy the Saturday Guardian and Sunday Times now and they last me the week. I have a gift subscription to Red too which is ok but not sure I will renew it. Heat I stopped buying years ago when their front cover was basically Celebrity Sweat Patches! Not proud that it had to reach those depths before I gave up on it though..

I used to be a real mag hag, but find them really boring now. I guess my interests moved from fashion/sex/relationships to being at home looking after a baby, and they don't really cover that. Well apart from those nauseating articles about 'me time' which seem to suggest that mothers are so broken down and desperate that all we need is a scented candle and a bubble bath to make us happy. grrr

I still buy Instyle for their annual best beauty products supplement, and whichever mag has a catwalk special, but other than that i read the Saturday guardian (+ weekend mag) their G2 section every day which is really interesting. I really enjoy Timeout each week too.

Sam Baker made Just 17 into J17, edited Minx, then Company then Red. I liked all her mags when she edited them.

The Economist is great

Nowadays: don't tend to bother with mags because G2 and the internet more or less over it. However, if I'm on a long train journey...

Private Eye (because light and easy to carry in bag and can be easily read on public transport and makes me laugh)

Olive food mag about 4 times a year

The Week, depending on the week ie. if it's been a good news week with some meaty issues

Viz

I sometimes buy Red, Easy Living, v. occasionally Grazia and always feel a bit soiled and annoyed with myself afterwards - total waste of money and somehow degrading and pointless. I used to buy and read more but am trying to wean myself off them.

I read The Economist too, weekend papers (Times, Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times). We used to get a paper every day but even the broadsheets just have too much celebrity tabloid drivel.

I read a lot of non-fiction books now instead of magazines and find that a better solution.

What happened to Marcelle d'Argy Smith? She was an excellent editor.

If any of the publishers of EVE are reading - any chance of getting it back? It is missed.

It's so true. They are all really boring. I bet they all go bust soon as few of my friends buy mags anymore anymore.

I used to love mags in my early 20s (10 years ago) and I guess I thought that by the time I got to 33, I'd be able to afford the posh handbags etc. Now I have reinvented myself as a thrift shopping feminist so don't give a shit.

My neighbour/mil often drop a pile in for me inc Prima (good recipes, otherwise claptrap), Psychologies (quite like, bit self indulgent), Easy Living (prob my favourite, but even their articles are not in depth enough/too short/not quite there), GH (nice recipes, otherwise soooo middle-classishly dull) and house type mags.

I always take them to the work where an art therapist takes them away and chops them up for collage.

THe thing is (ex magazine editorial person here) as Expat says, it's the advertisers that keep mags going. And advertisers, particularly those that advertise in women's mags, don't want the mags to be interesting or edgy. Because if the editorial is investigating things like, well, why the slimming industry is a total con, or the liberation of living without make up or whatever, then the advertisers feel that this will put women off buying their products. So the advertisers lean on the publishers, and the publishers lean on the editors, and the mags fill up with fluff and rewritten PR pieces...
Mind you (still planning seminar for next month mutter mutter) what is more feasible now is for people to start their own mags and not need to bother so much with advertising.

I subscribe to

• the Economist
• American Scientist (much better than New Scientist or Scientific American)
• the Spectator
• London Review of Books

plus many specialist ones in my own area of work.

Though I am thinking of stopping the Economist - its "irreverent" tone just becomes sneery and tedious after a while.

I don't buy womens' magazines and never have.

Hey! Let's do our own mn mag? Subscription only?

MN magazine sounds like fun - lets have some ideas!

I prefer proper fashion magazines (Self Service, 10, Citizen Kane etc) to ones with 'worthy' articles.

I cannot stand someone's plight up against adverts for L'oreal.

I like/use imagery so I go for the good ones.

I lurve the Economist. Very good.

I like reading the crappy ones for a couple of minuntes in beauticians waiting rooms, but that's about. I used ot occassionally buy Grazia, but stopped it because everytime it was like eating candy floss - no substance and you feel a bit sick afterwards.

I buy French Vogue every now and then, but that's because I love the pictures and it's to practice reading French. I don't understand a lot of it, but I feel like I'm doing something.

What's this Psychologies magazine about anyway? I've seen it around, but got put off it as the only person I knew who read it was a self-important tool.

Some decent, tasty recipes that uses basic things that most would have in their cupboards.

Incidentally, I stopped my Eve subscription - it was really good in the beginning, but in the end seemed to be taken over by these middle-class women with banker husbands opening up specialist boutiques ...

mn magazine sounds like a good idea!

I read Viz and Private Eye - sometimes Good Housekeeping too, depends on the length of the journey. Although now I tend to just get a book in a charity shop as it will keep me going for longer, and cost less, than a mag! And then get the Viz annual for christmas :o (DH and I were reading one last night and were both actually crying with laughter at an article on Rowan Williams confirming that he is not an owl after he coughed a pellet up on the queen. that, and strips entitled "Jonathon Ross and His Quest for a Toss" will always keep me going back for more...)

The mainstream womens magazines are terrible. I'm glad I am not the only one to think this. I thought it was because I was getting old and cynical

I work for the publisher of EVE. It was bought from BBC & never made a profit for the few years we had it so no chance of getting it back.
Personally I thought it was crap! The fashion stuff was way too expensive.
I was a big New Woman fan & miss it so much.

Karma, Grazia isn't published by the EVE publisher so it would have been the subscriptions agency trying to sell it to you .

The only 'Women's mag' to come from the EVE publisher is the new X-Factor magazine