Magazines: A love story
I am watching a show IÂ recorded called Inside the Great Magazines as I write this. It is a Canadian series that take viewers inside the most influential magazines of our times – Cosmo, Rolling Stone, Ebony, Time – and for magazine addicts like me, a fascinating social history and insight into the publishing world. I am in viewing heaven.
I love magazines. My first journalism job was on a magazine – my cadetship at Disney Adventures and then a year-and-a-half on New Idea (an Australian weekly women’s magazine) before I moved to London. As a child I would go straight for my mum’s friends’ magazine racks or coffee tables to read Woman’s Day, New Idea or Australian Women’s Weekly.  As a teen my friends and I would read Dolly (the columns Dolly Doctor and What Should I do? were always faves) and I had the local newsagent put away a copy of Smash Hits each week.
I am a rabid mag reader…though less so these days since I moved back to Australia because they are so expensive! I subscribe to Vanity Fair and Australian Harper’s Bazaar (it was a gift from my brother and his partner and I love to look at stuff I can’t afford!). When I lived in the UK I bought about 10 magazines a month (OK!, Heat, Red, Marie Claire, Radio Times, Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair, Eve, Newsweek) and more if I was going away on holiday.
I anxiously await my copy of VF every month and look forward to poring over the stories. I love the knowledge that a magazine is in my bag or at home waiting for me to read.
So, the talk of the last few years (especially with the Global Financial Crisis) that the newspaper and magazine publishing industry is dying is a horrifying thought. A lot of my horror is based in fear because I work as a journalist. I love my career. I don’t want to do anything else.
And I love magazines. I’ll read anything, seriously. I’ll pick up my dad’s copies of Feathers and Fur and have a read. Ditto my husband’s Australian Nursing Journal.
I like to touch magazines and keep them, then IÂ re-read them. I love what Magazine expert Samir Husni says:Â Â ”…Playing tennis on Wii is not the same as playing tennis at the tennis court.”.
There’s a great post by Husni on his blog Mr Magazine about his 10 reasons to be hopeful for magazines going into this next decade of the 21st century.
I’d love to know your magazine reading habits or thoughts.
January 31, 2010
Posted in: Media
6 Responses
Emily Webb » Magazines: A love story | Drakz Free Online Service - January 31, 2010
[...] the rest here: Emily Webb » Magazines: A love story Share and [...]
I have a problem throwing out magazines. I have boxes of mags in storage. Every spring clean I think that I will throw them out but I can’t make myself do it. I have a particlar addiction to inflight magazines which I have resolved to break this year. My first flight this year I didn’t take the mag with me. I’m just glad I don’t have the habit of subscribing to mags.
Hi,
Where are you from? Is it a secret?
Thank you
SuperSonic
I love magazines too…a while back I subscribed to so many, but when the economy started to go down it was an easy way to cut a little money each month..so I guess I am guilty of being part of the fall of the industry:(
I have a problem throwing out magazines. I have boxes of mags in storage. Every spring clean I think that I will throw them out but I can’t make myself do it. I have a particlar addiction to inflight magazines which I have resolved to break this year. My first flight this year I didn’t take the mag with me. I’m just glad I don’t have the habit of subscribing to mags.
I have a problem throwing out magazines. I have boxes of mags in storage. Every spring clean I think that I will throw them out but I can’t make myself do it. I have a particlar addiction to inflight magazines which I have resolved to break this year. My first flight this year I didn’t take the mag with me. I’m just glad I don’t have the habit of subscribing to mags.
Leave a Reply