Magazines
I had a migraine yesterday, so writing anything much was beyond me. Today I’m swamped at work, so I just have an opinion question: is print media a dying enterprise, with content migrating to the more-dynamic web?
The smug family gets these magazines, which makes for a lot of recycling:
Bark Magazine
Budget Travel
Cooks’ Illustrated
Entertainment Weekly
Fantasy and SF
Popular Mechanics
Popular Science
Sports Illustrated
Do you subscribe to any print magazines? If so, which ones?
And do you subscribe to any online periodicals? I find the ability to search archives for past information to be valuable. Still, we have online memberships only at Consumer Reports and America’s Test Kitchen.
March 18th, 2008
I subscribe to:
Parenting
Good Housekeeping
Redbook
Family Circle
Better Homes & Gardens
Marie Claire
Taste of Home
Cooking for 2
Simple & Delicious
I think that’s all of them
I got a great deal on Redbook, FC, and GH – all 3 for 1 year for only $20. I think when the subscription is up though I won’t renew. I just don’t have enough time to read all of them.
March 18th, 2008
I hope you’re feeling lots better now!
Man alive do we subscribe to magazines! Let’s see if I can remember them all:
Scientific American
Discover
(just let New Scientist lapse for complicated reasons)
SciFi
Cooks Illustrated
Cooking Light
Domino
Health
Country Living Gardens
Real Simple
Body & Soul
Time
US News & World Report
American History
Victoria
I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting something.
My Grandmother receives: Birds & Blooms, Woman’s Day, Reader’s Digest, Reminiscences(?)
Additionally, I tend to pick up Fine Cooking at the grocery store.
Who so many? Because 1) we discovered that my grandmother loves to read magazines, and 2) I did an online survey and got a *bunch* of free magazines, so, now my grandmother has lots of reading material.
Would I keep most of these on my own? I’d say Body & Soul, Cooks Illustrated, US News, Real Simple, American History, and maybe Cooking Light. And I’d pick New Scientist back up. But since I almost never get to read it, it didn’t seem worth the expense.
Personally, I love magazines. They’re great when I”m traveling, or brain dead in the evening and want to veg on the sofa. (Look at the shiny pictures! Oooh!)
Do I have any on-line subscriptions? No way. Because I don’t particularly like to read on-line. I like to sprawl out on the sofa and flip pages back and forth.
March 18th, 2008
No subscriptions. Not magazines, newspaper, or on-line.
I get everything I need on-line without having to subscribe. And I’m rebelling against past years when I had subscriptions, and couldn’t keep up with them!
March 18th, 2008
I get “Bead & Button” and that’s it. Last year, I cancelled some skiing mags and some fashion mags. The so-called “writing” in those mags was getting on my nerves. I don’t like magazines that are supposed to be primarily about a certain topic and then they go off writing (ignorantly) about irrelevant topics. If I subscribe to a frivolous fashion mag, I don’t want to read about George Bush. If I subscribe to a skiing mag, I don’t want to read about Bon Jovi or partying with Paris Hilton. It’s ridiculous. So bye-bye to those subscriptions! They’re not focused enough.
I read an interesting interview today with a well-respected literary agent who believes that America currently has more writers than readers. Interesting thing to say.
-bm
March 18th, 2008
PS: I hope your head feels better today.
March 18th, 2008
On paper:
FishAlaska
SaltWater Sportsman
MacWorld
Kiplingers
Harvard Business Review
On 0’s and 1’s:
The Register
TUAW
The Secret Diary of Fake Steve Jobs
Geeks are Sexy
Gizmodo
Engadget
Daring Fireball
Abnormal Photography
Ahead of the Curve
March 18th, 2008
We’re a big print magazine familty (as well as on-line):
New Yorker
Atlantic
Time
Newsweek
Sports Illustrated
New Scientist
ESPN the magazine (which truly sucks)
Actually – I thought we received more magazines that listed above. But most of the ones listed above are weeklies. So that might account for the volume.
March 18th, 2008
Tanya, I really like Better Homes & Gardens’ decorating special publications – the ones on creative decor, or decor under $100. They’re fun and more practical than Country Living or American Home.
Michelle, that’s a great list! I used to get Cooking Light – then I went more low carb, but I’m not anymore – I should try it again. I’ve never looked at Body & Soul – is it holistic health-oriented? I don’t quite get Real Simple – I’m a downshifting fan but Real Simple is too product-oriented for me. I do like print magazines, but I dislike print newspapers – I’m faintly allergic to the ink and it gets all over everything – so I do my news online.
Tom that’s pretty funny! I probably read my Popular Mechanics mag last, it’s so male-targeted – although the sons enjoy it – so that’d be my top candidate for non-renewal.
March 18th, 2008
BM – do you like Bead & Button? I really like Jewelry Arts (formerly Lapidary Journal) but I haven’t ever subscribed to it. I hear you on the writing – I’ve cancelled cooking mag subscriptions because of it.
Slatrat – you get a couple of the big gun mags! I’ve never looked at ESPN, but my favorite sports writer, Rick Reilly, just went over to them… it might be worth browsing online if I could find his columns again.
Thanks, all, for the well-wishes… I was well last night and it didn’t come back again today, so I think it’s blown over for now.
Oh – and on the mags? Boy do they stack up, and only a couple of ours are weeklies! But worth it, I guess.
March 18th, 2008
At the moment all I have is a gift subscription to Reader’s Digest – which I read voraciously as a kid but lost interest somewhere in my mid-teens. They suddenly started having a much more conservative slant, and I found myself in vehement disagreement with more and more of their regular articles, until eventually all I was reading was the anecdotes at the ends. I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the rest of my family has not kept up with who I am as a person, and still think I have the same interests as when I was ten…
I used to be subscribed to Discover, Smithsonian, Earth (a totally awesome geology/meteorology magazine until it folded), and Science News. Then I was a grad student and stopped having time to read for leisure, so I fell out of the habit. I should probably pick up Discover and Science News again.
March 19th, 2008
Body & Soul is probably classified as a holisitic health magazine. Lots of articles on coping with stress, exercise articles each month (though there is a lot of focus on yoga), how to be green articles, food articles, and it’s focused for all ages (although women primarily). They recently had an article on exercise, that targeted exercise in your 30s, in your 40s, and in your 50s. It was pretty interesting.
Real simple I like for the organization. Because as I may have mentioned, my house is very small, and has three adults, and some days it feels like there just isn’t enough space. So it gives me lots of good ideas, many of which have worked very well. (Right now I’m moving all my CDs and then DVDs into cases so I can get rid of the space consuming jewel cases. Awesome! Next up? Getting a portable hard drive so I can put all that music on my hard drive and put the cases in the back of some close. Woot!
March 19th, 2008
Newsweek and National Geographic.
On-line, only Consumer Reports.
March 19th, 2008
I don’t subscribe to anything…paper or pixels. I let my NY Times subscription lapse about 4-5 years ago. I’ve never been a big fan of magazines. The articles either tell the story from the very beginning (as if I don’t know anything about our history in Iraq), or don’t tell enough. Not a big fan.
March 19th, 2008
Michelle, I’ll have to try Body and Soul.
Janiece, my folks used to get National Geographic, they had an archive of years worth of issues. I used it a lot for reference for history and science assignments! When a doctor’s office has the magazine, it’s usually my first choice… don’t know why we don’t subscribe to it.
Nathan, the NY Times is HUGE. It’s a monster paper – probably a good chunk o’ tree for each issue. News magazines seem so dated now, with the advent of immediate online news, so I typically don’t read them either.
March 19th, 2008
We have subscriptions to:
Cooks Illustrated
Cooks Country
RedBook
Lots of Computer Mags
Lots of Network Security Mags (what hubs does)
This Old House
And others.
March 19th, 2008
Bill, sorry, I rescued you from moderation purgatory. Don’t know why… I should take a look at MacWorld, I enjoy Mac-oriented blogs & e-zines. Don’t you find that Gizmodo and Engadget are redundant? They seem to cover the same products. I’ve switched over to dvice.com (SF Channel’s gadget blog) – it’s a more amusing approach.
Becca, do you like Cook’s Country? I got the promotional push when they started publishing it. I’m super picky about the writing in my cooking mags (kind of like BM) — they need to be educational & informative, not just recipes & features, and they need to be pretty much focused on the cooking. Cooking Light’s lifestyle features annoy me, as do Country Living’s (IMHO a decorator mag) cooking features.
March 19th, 2008
Jeri,
I had a subscription to Cooks Country, but I let it lapse. Something about it I just didn’t quite like.
And I have to admit that I kinda like Cooking Light’s lifestyle bits, but then it’s usually stuff I’m interested in anyway. (Let’s say that I’m a sucker for anything taht tells me how to reduce stress in my life.)
March 25th, 2008
The Economist
The Atlantic
National Geographic
GQ
Wired
Rolling Stone