Thinking women's magazines have had their day

[EduardoBarcelona]

I was given a copy of Marie Claire. I just read it. Why? Adverts. Adverts. Hard adverts hard to bend. Samples.

Shit trite editorial and letters "I read the article on North Korea im so pleased to live in Europe". Yup thanks for that.
Articles on what it's like in the hamptons. A big on dodgy abortion providers. Pages on a woman in the desert with skeletal legs. See pic.

Then the most hilarious "get the look for less" see pics.

And the sad news is that they are no better in most other countries.

Boffin I did wonder if it was just me who was bored by constant features on sex in magazines. Thanks to antidepressants I have no interest in it right now, but interesting to know that women who are having sex/enjoying sex feel the same way! I'd honestly rather read an interesting travel piece or a book review.

Essentials is quite good.

wol1968 I could have written your post about Cosmo myself. Those very late 80's/early 90's were the years I used to read and love it.

There were some fascinating and interesting articles in it, never a month when I didn't cut out half the magazine and keep something from it or write down a load of recommendations for books and music.

Yet now it's all how to lose weight, how to make sure someone else has good sex and how to spend a fortune on oddly designed outfits that cost more than my mortgage.

I'm a bit disappointed but also unsurprised that Easy Living has gone. Same thing happened there.

I used to buy every magazine and newspaper going. Now I just use my ipad.

I still miss Honey after all these years - fab fashion from the likes of Body Map and Scott Crolla (humour me, young 'uns), the fab Jo Fairley editing, a column by Paula Yates, interesting articles and brilliant fiction.

I really liked Easy Living until Susie Forbes left and it started doing the cringe-worthy sex section and loads of puff pieces with the likes of Liz Hurley, plus Davina McCall always on the cover - nothing to do with all the advertising for hair dye, of course.

I liked them as a teenager but as an adult!?
utter tripe
havent bought them for years & years, cant even bear to read them in the dentists waiting room

I quite like Prima, Gh and women and home. use clubcard vouchers and my mum buys gh. like the craft bits in prima.

must admit I spotted a spelling error or wrong use of word in prima to instead of too which bugged me.

squirrel007 - thanks from me too, that does look interesting. Like just about everyone else, I don't really buy magazines. I used to and they were a treat but now it's really samey stuff. I flick through them at the hairdressers but usually find taking my kindle is more fun. I do buy Psychologies occasionally but that is pretty samey in its own way. I bought this months Marie Claire in a fit of nostalgia and because I wanted to try out the skin product freebies but I haven't been bothered to read it yet.

I worked for the company that acquired Eve and presumably then closed it down....

And I remember She, my mum used to read it. I haven't noticed New Woman on the shelves either.

And who remembers Minx - I loved that.

I read Grazia once a month although I'm still not convinced I like the layout, even though I've been reading it on and off since it launched.

Having worked in magazine publishing (albeit trade), I can confirm what you already know, that ads keep the mags afloat. But we had strict ratios that we adhered to, I think it was 60:40 in favour of editorial at the max. I could be wrong, I was on editorial and we couldn't give a shit about adverts as long as we got paid didn't really get involved with the finances because we were creative types who didn't understand business.

That said, I can't bear the glossies because you have to get past at least 20 pages of ads before you get to any editorial.

And Marie Claire used to be amazing, I read an article on FGM at least 20 years ago, as well as one on traveller girls getting married at 15 and the ridiculous expense, and the sexism. This was also at least 20 years ago. I read a copy recently and thought it was shite. No depth.

I love The Week, it's a roundup of news stories from around the world and from all sorts of sources.

I do still like fashion and beauty but I don't give a shit about people I've never heard of and are only famous for being on crap TV. I'd happily read about people I've never heard of if they've actually done something interesting.

I hate being made to feel as if I'm old (I'm 40). Not ready for knitting patters, real-life stories nor short stories yet.

Another one who misses her Eve subscription here too. My replacement Grazias only came out of the wrapping to be recycled - vacuous shite.

I buy History magazines - not the Family History though, they are the same every month and have a subscription to Viz

I found an old magazine (Nov 2010) and flicked through it before re-cycling. I used to buy them frequently.... But it was all adverts on how to look younger/thinner/get your man/keep your man/make food (for your man/kids/friends)/take ten years off/add another role to your already exhausting lifestyle. No wonder I stopped buying them, years ago. Adverts showing 20 yr old models advertising anti-ageing serum? No. Just no.

In the supermarket I see many of the magazines aimed at the mature lady 40's/50's +. One caught my eye showing a former 70's actress who had clearly been photoshopped for all she was worth. I saw her recently, at an airport and she looked every one of her advancing years. She looked good, but not the version on the front cover of the magazine. And WHY should she?

Nope, I grew up and out of that particular self-inflicted cycle of striving to be something I never can be physically. And I STILL can't cook

Ooh skyninja, I love The Week too. It's like The Economist for the time-poor! Really good news coverage but also covers business, people and the arts (including - hilariously - what happened in The Archers and who picked what on Desert Island Discs - I can only assume the editor is a chum of the controller of Radio 4...) Most weeks it includes a feature called "Boring but important" which I think is a genius way to make me read stuff I wouldn't normally bother with!

I used to read my mum's She. I used to love Take a Break when I worked in a job where I was on my own for lunch break and needed something to read. It's a bit like watching JK. Look at the people you're glad you're not.

I've thought about getting The Lady too. I was going in for day surgery about a year ago and nearly got it then. I ended up with Good Housekeeping, other that Sandi Toksvig it was rubbish. I might well try a copy of The Lady.

I too subscribe to Fortean Times (hello up thread).

Good housekeeping is surprisingly interesting (am I getting old...)

there are only so many times you can feign interest in Lulu, Fiona Bruce, Natasha Kaplinsky or Lorraine Kelly

Easy Living was cancelled last summer.
New Woman was cancelled back in Spring 2008.

Does anyone remember a fortnightly one called Real Was launched in 2001 (I remember cos it was just after I started working at a sex chatline office and when id finished with my copies of Real and NW i used to take them into the office for the other girls to look at and read in between calls.

Used to buy Now when it first launched back in the late 90s Hard to believe now but it used to be a better version of Grazia.

Red was a bloody good mag when Sam Baker was editor.

Alicadabra I read the Desert Island Discs bit and the Archers even though I don't listen to them on Radio 4 (although I do rather like R4 these days so clearly middle age is a-coming). I also like the property pages because it always seems to be a beautiful early summer's day in the photos.

And The Last Word article is always really interesting, I think there's only been one I didn't read.

I even read the finance section, even if it does make my brain go a bit cross-eyed.

It seems very well balanced politically too.

I bought She a few times That was cancelled 3 years ago Im obviously a jinx

I glanced at Diva while in WH Smiths (maybe the shitness of women's magazines is related to the shitness of WH Smiths?), which is the only print glossy for lesbian/bisexual/queer women.

Do gay women have enough in common to make a magazine out of? Surely it's too diverse a group to have anything in common other than who you chose to have as your partners?

New Woman went in 2008? I have clearly not being paying attention. But it was in my quest to find something that didn't make my teeth itch last month that I realised there was no NW.

Red is the same every month, and I agree it's gone downhill quickly. Is it that there are hardly any long articles? Most seem to be one page things, I found it really disjointed last time I read it at the dentist.

Ive bought Good Housekeeping about 4/5 times in the last year It has some interesting articles occasionally and i like their review section but at 41 i still feel a bit young for it.

Bought Woman and Home once Didn't like it at all.

gh is cook for recipes

Red used to have a really good review section called Red Hot Towards the end of the year they changed the section and renamed it Scene.

And they also got rid of the Red Book Club. They used to pick a book of the month and on the last Friday of every month the author used to do a webchat through the Red website.

That went when Sam Baker did.