Magtastic Blogsplosion

Lad mags to blame for society’s ills
“Instant-hit hedonism” isn’t a bad tagline, actually

Time Inc to produce films based on its magazine articles
Expect the headline “Time and motion pictures” to appear somewhere soon

Mygazines saga continues
Exact Editions smells a rat regarding the regularity of what’s been scanned in so far by “users”. No more news from Mr Smith; meanwhile the discussion goes on

Everywhere magazine gets mothballed
Back “before the end of the year“. Disclosure: I have a piece in the latest (last?) edition. I was invited to contribute, which is a little different from the UGC model it espouses; I’ll receive the same payment as all the other contributors, though hopefully the free subscription will be transferred to the still-running JPG

American store pulls Mad magazine for spoof ad
“Embarrassed corporate PR guy” backpedals frantically

David Rowan is to edit Wired UK
With Danger Hammersley as Number Two, it seems

Faber dabbles in print on demand
Rather a lovely way of putting old books back into print. Magazines next?

John Smith of Mygazines.com has sent the following response to my previous post

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for taking the time to write about Mygazines. I did however want to clear up a few misunderstandings about our site.

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A new magazine-based file-sharing website called Mygazines has just launched, flagrantly breaking publishers’ copyright from around the world. Is it a threat, an opportunity or both?

Let’s step back a moment. When Amazon released the Kindle, most people focused on the experience of using physical object, saying how they did or didn’t want to read a book on it, how it was or wasn’t the same as paper, and so on.

What most people overlooked, however, was that Amazon was testing something else at the same time, something probably even more important than being an early seller of commercial e-paper: they were testing a sales model for digital publishing.

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The carbon cost of the Esquire e-Ink cover
The backlash begins. 150 carbon tons, apparently

The strange, sad story of door-to-door magazine sales
A story of lies, drugs, death and the nationwide pressure to increase magazine circulations. Top reporting from the Houston Press

Design is pretty, but won’t someone think of the content?
Editorial grandaddy Harold Evans rails against design-led emptyness. He might not enjoy this October’s Belvedere Festival then

All-black Italian Vogue “most wanted issue ever”
10,000-copy reprint for the US market. I have a copy, and don’t really get what the fuss is about. A bonus “fashion shows” supplement provides plenty of skinny white girls for those who like them (as do all the ads)

Time tries the Radiohead subscription model
Unlike Radiohead, people might actually put an amount more than the 44c an issue it otherwise costs (including the $5 Amazon coupon)

Police raids French auto magazine looking for source of leak
Renault gets the boys in

Magazine makes real crop circle
Photoshop reported to be “worried”

The prevailing logic is that only two kinds of magazine are immune from recession: wedding magazines and high-end luxury magazines.

And so, despite the current sub-prime number crisis, several luxury magazines are slated to launch or relaunch in the USA over the coming months.
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Photo by Darkmatter

In the book We Love Magazines, I wrote in 2006: “Advances in digital paper and low-cost throwaway screens suggest that the first ever animated front cover isn’t far away. The newsstand may yet prove even more attention-grabbing.”

And here we are, with Esquire about to publish a cover that the magazine’s Editor in Chief, David Granger hopes “will be in the Smithsonian [Museum]” – a flashing E-ink cover proclaiming “The 21st Century Begins Now!”

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How a magazine page is designed
Video of putting together a page for the Royal Academy magazine, designed by Studio8. ‘Light Fantastic’ was a much better headline, I reckon (via MagCulture)

Wallpaper* uses clever ink for The Secret Elite edition
Brilliant. But why subscribers only? (and did they subconsciously copy Wire for the main image?)

Rolling Stone gives away magazines with t-shirts
It’s all about the ad numbers. Start of a trend?

London Magtastic on 12th July
Gathering of independent, London-focused magazines; nothing to do with me

Archives don’t need to pay contributors again
Potentially big ruling in the USA. Thank goodness for common sense

Fashion-ation reads fashion magazines
So you don’t have to