News from the magosphere 20th Nov ’08

‘Sexiest men alive’ issue includes Scratch n Sniff
Thankfully not the smells of the men themselves, but the smells that make them feel sexy. Though you can bet it isn’t the chemical reproduction of the smells that does the trick

Cost of DVD partworks adds up
£457.92 for a series of Buffy you can buy for £20 or less on Amazon (thin naff pseudo magazine not included)

PC Magazine embraces the inevitable before its too late
Goes online for real, rather than pretending to while firing all its staff. More reaction here

Google digitises Life’s database
More than 10 million pics, most of them never seen by the public. The first part of a much bigger strategy I mentioned earlier

Free drinks, free magazine subscription too
Following on from Rolling Stone giving away subscriptions with t-shirts. I think we’ll see a lot more of this in the States before it goes away

Teenagers invited to create Dazed cover
Deadline of today, kids. As it says in the small print, 37-year-old graphic designers beware

Bible magazine launches in English
I interviewed the team behind this for the Wall Street Journal back in February, when it was published in Swedish. I haven’t seen yet if the images are different, though I think some will be. And the New Testament is more bankable than the Old in the USA, it seems

Swiss distributor blogs new magazines
One of those things that makes so much sense, it makes you wonder why everyone doesn’t do it

Japanese fashion magazine for train travellers
Does it include a section called “Rail Lives”?