Support the Magazines

It's a scene that is becoming all too familiar as yet another magazine closes and more space opens up on the newsstands. The formula is simple -- a bad economy means consumers aren't spending therefore no advertising which equates into fewer and fewer editorial pages and less money -- you get the picture.

Today's casualty is the twenty-six-year-old veteran publication Metropolitan Home, a unique magazine that boasted a more contemporary and architecturally interested consumer as its base.

We have watched numerous glossies go down in the shelter category (think home and garden) such as House and Garden, Domino, Home, Oprah's O at Home, Blueprint, Southern Accents, Country Home and Cottage Living. And in a related category, Gourmet's demise left many a bereft foodie behind.

It's gotten so bad that there is even a website dedicated to the situation -- "Magazine Death Pool -- Who Will be Next?" (www.magazinedeathpool.com) who wryly notes, "If you've got 'home' or 'garden' in your title, you've got one foot already on the banana peel."

It's hard for me to imagine we are reaching a time where everything will be read on the Internet. The beauty of the magazines -- particularly when the theme is food, fashion, art, lifestyle or design -- is being able to read (and more importantly save) articles at my leisure while lounging on the sofa, beach, airplane or in the bathtub -- somehow curling up with the laptop and facing electrocution amidst the bubbles doesn't have the same luxurious experience.

So who is left standing? Architectural Digest, Traditional Home, Elle Decor, Veranda, Dwell, Metropolis and House Beautiful just to name a precious few. And while I have "a dog in the hunt" as they say in the South, (I am a contributing writer for Traditional Home and have written for many of the shelter rags), I hate to think of even more institutions going down the drain.

Support your magazines. For the price of a nice lunch you can get a subscription and keep these publications going. Or the next time you are on the plane you can read the plastic safety instructions located in front of the airsick bag. It's your choice.

 

Follow Cathy Whitlock on Twitter: www.twitter.com/catwhit

Comments

[citygirl1]

Great post. I, too, am addicted to magazines. Inviting fans to subscribe won't solve the problem, however. The issue is not that consumers have stopped buying magazines. The issue is that consumers have stopped buying cars, clothing accessories, jewelry, etc. in the recession, and the marketers of these products have stopped advertising in magazines. Most glossies--the fashion, food, home design, art magazines--don't even break even on the $10 or so they charge readers for an annual subscription. They make all their money from advertising. And in a year when even big books such as Vogue are off 30%, 40% or more in ad dollars, many magazines are simply not profitable.

[Charlotte Safavi - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Cathy,
Enjoyed your piece. Check out mine on Huff Post--Met Home gets the Hatchet. We touch upon similar themes.
Best,
Charlotte

[Cathy Whitlock - Huffpost Blogger]

I completely agree with your post and hopefully we won't be having to comment on the demise of any more magazines...at least for this year.

[OtayPanky]

There are way too many trees in this world. We need more magazines.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

As a publisher of the oldest digital sports magazine on the Internet, I have to say "bunk." People sit with their laptops and Kindles and read these days, my dear. The only difference between a digital magazine such as ours, which, by the way, has a cover, and a magazine formatted layout, is that we kill far fewer trees. Same big pictures. Fewer ads. Same copy.

With web readers dropping into the ounces category it will continue that way. They're a decade late to the party, but maybe some of your precious glossies should be thinking about how to migrate the EXACT SAME look and feel to their web operations, instead of treating the Internet like it was a bastard child of publishing.

Web magazines are the real deal. Welcome to our 21st century.

Sincerely,
Brian Ross
Publisher & Sr. Editor
MLNSports.com

[Citizen54]

According to optimistic estimates (see TechCrunch, for example), Amazon has sold about 500,000 Kindles. More skeptical estimates (a $300 device for sale during a major recession) say it's around 300K. But even if it's half a million, keep in mind that some print magazines have twice as many subscribers.

Digital magazines are great (I've worked on a few, so I'm not anti-) and the Internet is a veritable literary warehouse. But I dread the day when I can't stuff a paper copy of the New Yorker or whateverinto my backpack and sit down and read it wherever I like. Maybe it's because I've worked on magazines for 30 years and am just sentimental, but pixels on the screen of a hard plastic device just ain't the same. Even in the 21st century.

Besides, what's really putting mags out of business is lack of advertising, not lack of readers.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

You are being sentimental Barnes & Noble is releasing a Kindle killer. Apple has some sort of tablet computer that is like an iPhone on steroids in the wings. Flat tablets and E-books will make up a huge market share by the end of the decade.

My point is that you can create the exact same experience of a "magazine" format electronically. The fact that most magazines migrating from paper to the web have done an ATROCIOUS job of it is really more a fear-factor of the media, and a lack of control over their IT people. We have been able to design a magazine look and feel. More are coming.

This is the age of the Internet. Better get a pad to stick in your backpack.

[Cathy Whitlock - Huffpost Blogger]

I would also like to see numbers for online versus print readership. Is it possible the baby boomers and above still favor print and the Gen X and Y readers are reading more online?
I have not purchased a Kindle as I like having a library in my house but realize there is a place for all forms of communication.

[texastrixie]

I am amazed at how few women read magazines anymore, although I can understand why home and garden magazines are in such trouble. Most of us are happy to be able to just do upkeep on our homes. Who can afford new linens simply because they look pretty? Same with window treatments, even new paint. Food, and shoes for the kids are now luxuries for far too many people in this country.

[godemsinnc]

I buy, subscribe to, and read way too many magazines, and have my 14-year-old daughter hooked on them as well (so at least a few of them should be safe for another generation). The day my new House Beautiful comes is always a happy day around here.

Thanks for a good excuse to indulge in my favorite luxury -- cheaper than a pedicure, healthier than ice cream, and every once in a while I actually get an idea I can use in my real life! And when I don't, it's fun to dream.

[Candace Manroe]

Friends who were real fans of Country Home are STILL lamenting its demise...and it folded January 8. Cathy, you are speaking for millions of devoted magazine readers when you plead our case so eloquently. Yes, times are changing; yes, media companies, to stay viable, must beef up their Internet offerings, etc. But like you, I'm hooked on paper. That simple. Reading, from that first sniff of fresh ink on new paper, is a sensory experience. And though I don't know how we lived before Google, I don't like imagining how we'll live with only electronics and no tactile print publications. It will be a mean world. No doubt I'll be gone by then.

Thanks for pleading the case.

Candace Ord Manroe
Senior Design Editor
Traditional Home Magazine

[Cathy Whitlock - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Candace, I could not have said it better. It is both a sensory AND a luxurious experience and I too am hooked on paper!