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.

It's an absolute travesty how many adverts are in now. It's actually ridiculous.

I prefer Take A Break just for the comedy factor. 'my pet snake ate my gran then spat out her glasses!'

Or

'Make your own wonderful Halloween decorations. Dunk a tampon in water, allow to dry then add googly eyes. There, your very own spooky ghosts complete with string to hang''

My ideal mag would consist of:

Pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston an the like.

Those daft quizzes like 'what is your power animal'

Interviews with cast of Game Of Thrones/Hannibal/Greys/Walking Dead

Nursing and midwifery news

Ten minute recipes

Useful how to's: like the most polite way to avoid a chugger, how to stop your DP eating all the biscuits

Adverts for Iron Fist Clothing, metal bands, new technology

And a section of cute dog photos.

So if any magazine people are reading this I shall expect a copy if this!

See that's the problem I have had, i have been trying to do that corus but finding it difficult because of the amount if platforms they use. Instead of all having one like nearly every site had RSS functionality at one point, you'll have some that are follow on gmail+, then you'll come across anther and it won't have gmail it'll have blogger, etc etc. I've used different apps to get them all in one place but found them a bit troublesome and not streamline enough.

Thanks for pulse, I'll have a look now I don't think I've had a gander at that!

Ah brilliant thankyou!

I might get one of those ryvita tins and stash them in there. He'll never look in there...

I've recently subscribed to London Review of Books on my kindle. Brilliant.

Even my crafty mags that I used to love are one giant advert now.

For kids, the Phoenix is brilliant, and has no adverts. Age 7+. For age 3-7 Okido is good.

The last magazine I read with any regularity was my mum's Australian Women's Weekly, an absolute brick of a magazine, monthly, probably read by 90% of Australian women back in the day. I have been looking for a magazine my entire adult life to attach myself to, but have found absolutely nothing.

I started reading Red when my mum bought the launch issue. I still like it but I preferred it under Sam Baker.

I used to like Me and Eve. SHE was fine until it revamped and then died. Easy Living relaunched with a 50 shades inspired sex section that was dire. I find other people's sex lives, like other people's dreams to be crushingly dull.

I like fashion but I wish there was a high street fashion magazine that wasn't also a 'let's look at Rhianna's stomach/Amy Child's boobs' mag.
There used to be a 'What Not to Wear' magazine published quarterly that was all about clothes, dressing for your shape and makeovers. I loved that magazine SO much.

I don't give a shit about cosmetic surgery, gardening, baking or sewing.

We're all different but the magazines imagine we're all wearing breton tops and making cup cakes in South London or working in an office when we're not having a threesome and a bit of light bondage. On a separate note, the work wear fashion they show is nearly always ludicrous and nothing like what 90% of the women I know wear for work.

I like Vogue, and that's about it.

I object to Heat etc far more.

I quite like The Lady too, although the writing/grammar is shocking sometimes.

I like Vanity Fair too, especially the Hollywood issue.

I miss Eve.

I like Grazia when at the hairdressers/waiting for a sandwich, but increasingly find myself thinking 'WHO?!?!' at all the slebs. [getting old]

"It's an absolute travesty how many adverts are in now. It's actually ridiculous."

You do realise that if they didn't have all those adverts the cover price would be about £12 and there would be ONLY content written by intern Tamara Pinkleton-Smyth on what she and her friends are wearing/doing/eating on their gap yah, because there would be even less money to pay for editorial content?

I love Vanity Fair.

twelvelegged there used to be far far less and the price has still increased over the years so I think it's more a case of them being greedy.

Sure, tequilla, but print media has changed so dramatically that what used to be is no longer relevant.

It's not greed, magazines are closing because they are not profitable. It's because advertising rates have taken a hammering (partly due to the boom in internet, look at the number of ads on MN for example - a few years ago those advertisers would have placed ads in women's magazines to target the same audience) so you have to have more adverts to generate the same income, and afford the same number of editorial pages. At the same time the print/distribution costs etc have all gone up.

Very few people are making much money out of print magazines these days.

Women's magazines were always shite. I used to get Cosmo occasionally back in the early 2000s, and every second article was to how to get / keep a man. It seemed to boil down to endless athletic sex and completely concealing the existence of periods / body hair / make-up free faces.

I buy loads of magazines, but have stopped getting a lot over the years.
Good Housekeeping is identical every month.
Recently started reading Grazia for it's slightly feminist articles though I hate the layout and dreary clothes pages.
The only ones I buy religiously are Take a Break, Real People, That's Life and Dogs Today.
American Cosmo was good until about a year ago when they changed the content and layout to become mediocre and aimed at teenagers.

I couldn't care less about diets, clothes, makeup, tv shows or celebrities, magazine companies need to understand that people with vaginas have interests beyond this sort of shit. I don't like being patronised.

haven't bought them for myself for years.
I can't stand the ones that tell me the latest fashion must haves
e.g this handbag/pair of shoes/statement necklace for only £800.
I know exactly what I want to spend my hard earned money on thanks.
And they just regurgitate the same articles.
I have zero interest in celebs.

Most laughable is the beach body article they all do in summer featuring a gorgeous model with non-frizzy hair
in tiny bikini and heels (hmm)
who has spent 5 hours having hair and make-up done.
I have never seen anyone look like that on a beach in real life, ever.

We do buy take a break though as ds14 does all the puzzles with me, reads the articles and for us as parents with a child who wont read anything else (except football mags) and struggles with English it is worth the 88p.
His teachers say as long as he's reading something.

I've been very lazy about cancelling my subscriptions, but after reading this I rang up and cancelled Good housekeeping and Red. All they ever have is:

Articles about women who "overcame the odds" usually divorce, cancer or redundancy and got new careers. Said women made over in unflattering bright coloured tight dresses and boring bob hairstyles.

Medical guidance about really common conditions we all know about anyway - surely if you are squittering blood you don't need GH to tell you to go to the doctors?

Pictures of clothes that are truly horrible and which you can't ever find on the web sites of the shops even if you wanted to.

Recipes that only include boring stuff for veggies.

I thought it was really difficult to get a job writing/editing these publications, but whoever is doing it needs an injection of enthusiasm and a few more brain cells. Don't get me started on the adverts.....

I gave up on magazines years ago, it's the adverts!! And a skirt for £3000?? Weekends in the Bahamas?? Who the hell is going to buy any of that apart from celebrities?? Articles were either so dumbed down they were insulting or so irrelevant to my life, and any normal woman I know to be honest, that I was basically paying for expensive recycling. I don't bother anymore. But even relevant magazines like pregnancy and baby ones seem pointless now - repetitive, dumbed down, full of overpriced junk no one needs and gossip about celebrities I either don't know or don't care about. I'll only get a magazine now if it has a good free gift worth far more than the magazine or if I'm stuck somewhere for a few days without wifi, like hospital.