What am I going to read now???
Ok. I had to write about this before I go to bed. What’s really good with all these magazines closing up shop!! WTF!! I’m a magazine junkie. I keep old issues and love to flip thru look at photos and articles. Now they’re dropping left and right!
Here’s what I have to say about all of this ridiculousness!!!!
I’ll rewind a couple of years and start with Unleashed Magazine.
This was a great magazine. It was over-sized, like a Rolling Stone, but with high quality semi-gloss paper that made the photos pop on the page. They featured a lot of travel destinations, products, up and coming actors and musicians, etc. It was expensive at $7.00 an issue, but worth it to me. I want to say it lasted about 2 years and then just faded away. I was heated! I still have a few issues and the photography and artwork is still impressive!
Fast forward to 2008…then there was Men’s Vogue. Yes, I read Men’s Vogue and I still would be if it was still in print. I even had a subscription!
I really liked this magazine. They had really good articles and featured really cool products. They had great interviews, ranging from people like Big Homie BHO to Olympic snowboarder Seth Westott to hotelier Ian Schrager. For a serious lack of a better phrase (because I REALLY HATE THIS PHRASE), this was the perfect magazine for getting your “Grown Man On.” (I even hated typing that!)
Unfortunately, this one bit the bullet earlier this year. Another sad day for Mr. YAKWII! Ok…moving on to the next great downfall in magazine history…
This one really broke my heart! King Magazine. Unfortunately, unlike the previous two magazines I mentioned, I saw this one coming and so did lots of other loyal readers.
About 1.5 – 2 years ago, the editors at King made a business decision that proved to be disastrous. Instead of continuing to appeal to their current readership, they decided to try to expand the appeal of King to a wider audience. Back when King first came out, it was all about who was going to be on the next cover. King cover girls had the body types that you didn’t find in magazines like Maxim and FHM, but King readers liked it that way. King is where you went to see the girls who actually had bodies on them. However, when you start throwing Tila Tequila and a unsexy looking Ciara on the cover (as opposed to this Ciara), that light at the end of the tunnel starts to get brighter and brighter.
On top of that, the articles just became terrible! I’m not knocking any one individual writer, but it just seemed that the overall quality began to drop. In the end, the combo of their attempted demographic expansion and the tanking economy proved to be disastrous. Another sad day for this guy.
With the cancellation of Men’s Vogue, Conde Nast did a good thing and started sending me Portfolio.
It was OK. Kinda like a long-winded Business Week or Fortune to me. But since they cut me off of Men’s Vogue, I read it….until the other week! I was just cruising thru the New York Times and there was an article saying that Portfolio is now gone!
This one didn’t hurt too much because I really didn’t have time to get attached, but I can add it to the list of the magazine I will no longer have the opportunity to read. Bummer!
So now I’m on the search for magazines to add back into the rotation. In addition to some others I mentioned earlier, I already check out Complex, Esquire, Show, Black Enterprise, ESPN The Magazine, Sneaker Freaker, Loft Life, Dwell, Surface, The Fader, Trace, Uptown and a bunch of others I cannot think of since it’s approaching 2 am. If anyone can think of a good magazine that I probably don’t know about and would probably enjoy – holla at me!
One.
