News from the magosphere 9th Jan ’09

Unselfish Heller reveals vintage magazine source
Contains all the big hitters: Life, Flair, Harpers, New Yorker, Fortune… just be prepared to bid against Steven

Men’s Vogue to be reverse-bound with Vogue
A smart short-term solution to keep jobs; long-term future still suspect, though

What’s wrong with Vogue?
“Vogue has become stale and predictable” according to the NYT blog; plenty of quotes to back it up, too. Miesel aside, it certainly pales in daring compared to Vogue Italia and Vogue France. But could an American audience handle such bravado?

Roundup of how Google Magazines is doing
“We talked about digitizing it for years, but could never justify the expense” – a phrase which applies to far too many magazines. Still, not everyone can formulate a successful digital strategy, and not everyone is interested in trying, which is where the big G comes in

Cute new PDF fanzine about Tokyo/China
A bit short on content and focus, but very nice looking and a decent start from two Italians living in Tokyo. Worth the download, if not worth keeping; I’d love to see a Japanese expat PDF zine made in the west, as a contrast (via Jean Snow)

Mag roundup of 2008
Decent roundup of mags they’ll miss and covers they loved (which I almost universally didn’t. I do agree with many other people’s favourite though)

Ink-saving typeface
Not yet there, but a decent-enough talking point / piece of PR