mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
I’ve written about the size of fashion magazines in the past, both in essays and fiction, but I really must dip a toe back into the pool again here because, I’m sorry, but the new issue of Vogue has – not kidding – 727 pages of advertising!!
And guess what folks, they’re so proud of this inanity, they’ve gone and boasted as much on the front cover! Yes, it’s 100 pages thicker than last year’s September issue!
I mean come on now Condé Nast! Forget for a moment about the number of trees needed to publish an albatross of that size, what about the amount of money spent by both advertisers and publisher putting it together? Couldn’t they find a better use for all that dough?
To attract 100 new advertisers, the mag had to come up with a new ploy: a Web-based broadband channel, which they’re calling “added value.” (With shows entitled “60 Seconds to Chic,” it’s hard to argue.)
Eh, I’m not impressed. I mean GQ in Italy has had their own broadband running for a couple years now. I know because they interviewed me (watch for yourselves here and here) way back in ’05. I don’t think the number of subscriptions over at that mag has gone up because of it, nor do I think Vogue TV will change the world, either.
The other thing I’d like to add about fashion magazine heft is this: when you’re standing in line at the supermarket, mindlessly thumbing through one, have you ever noticed that you can NEVER EVER find the cover story? Is it just me, or do they really make it hard for us to find them, buried as they are between perfumed advertisements and malnutritioned-looking runway glams??
Comments (9)
Comment
How many pages of actual content does this issue have? OK, that may be hard to tell. How many pages total, so we can subtract 727 ad pages?
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-30-2007 at 4:41 am
I just subscribed to Vogue, and this was the first issue I got (last week). I STILL haven’t found the cover story. (No, I’m not kidding.) I’ve thumbed through it at least 5 times, and once, went page-by-page through at least 1/2 of it (I got tired of the horrendous perfume samples and the Louis Vuitton ads). It’s ridiculous. I’m considering canceling my subscription out of sheer embarrassment that they believe all their subscribers are silly enough to care about 1/4 of those ads. I’d rather not be associated with it.
posted by kaliah on 8-30-2007 at 7:46 am
cover stories are hard to find, but so are the mastheads. a college friend, I had heard, was editor of In Style for a while, and I wanted to drop her a note, but I could’t find the masthead to check.
posted by Johnny Sunshine on 8-30-2007 at 8:31 am
Soooo I feel so ashamed! I try to think of myself of an intellectual of sorts…an artist…a citizen of the universe..heck even someone who is aware and trying to make a difference with the environmental issues that we face.
However can’t one do this while looking good or being excited when Vogue comes in the mail!? My point is that after reading this it has somewhat confirmed that guilty feeling I always get when I get sooo excited about my monthly subscriptions that arrive in the mail.
It is a like a little gift in the mail…just for me..filled with pictures of beautiful people and unattainable clothing made of hand beading,cashmeres and silks! But really…I just smelled a whif of someones coffee! I always think to myself: what am I really gaining from this?? A bunch of ads…made to make you who you are??!! That is it! I am going to the t-shirt shop and printing my own tee’s in hopes of bringing awareness to the humanitarian issues (Just to name one main concern with China)in China !
Can I make a second point? I guess your posting is just something that helps me take that step of not falling into the trap of seeing a giant mag and grabbing it in hopes of some fashion revelation…it is all just ads and a waste oh an attempt to brainwash you into something really sinister;)
posted by Samantha FM Veda on 8-30-2007 at 9:37 am
Given that I don’t buy any fashion magazines very often, I feel like the whole magazine is an ad, and with this attitude I look at the ads and the spreads equally. I never read the articles. I look at what the designers are offering to apply to my own fashion sense.
They don’t number the pages very well, so finding the cover story is definately going to be hard.
posted by Carla on 8-30-2007 at 3:04 pm
I kind of enjoy magazine ads, especially the pretty ones in high end mags like Vogue, but agree the amount of printing is unecessary for pretty much all magazines. Magazines should go to offering the option of an online version or a print version. There’s no reason they couldn’t offer a digital version with all the articles and advertisements just the same as the original. It could be online like a website for subscribers or it could be downloaded per issue. That way consumers could opt to read the digital version and waste less paper when they intend to read it where they have computer access. Sure, they should still make a print issue for times when you’re out of computer range, but a digital issue sure would be better for the earth. A big magazine like Vogue leading the way could revolutionize the whole magazine industry that way. And it wouldn’t be terribly hard to do, and likely would be more cost effective than printing paper magazines.
posted by Melissa on 8-30-2007 at 4:29 pm
The ads are the whole point! For someone who follows fashion quite closely [as well as proper intellectual pursuits], I look forward to the September Vogue. The ads are beautifully shot examples of what all of the major and minor houses are releasing and clues as to what will trickle down to street fashion. The only time I don’t want to see an ad is when it’s for the Gap or Banana Republic, whose bland styles never really change.
Also: the articles in Vogue kind of suck.
posted by Rhiannon on 8-30-2007 at 11:02 pm
My mom shoved her “Martha Stewart Living” in my face and said “look.” It was literally several pages of ads, an article, several pages of ads, an article, page after page of ads, and so on. She cancelled the subscription.
posted by Tdave on 8-31-2007 at 3:23 am
Next time you’re in line at the supermarket, look at the Family Circle magazine. Every issue has some variation of “Walk Your Way Thin” on the cover. I don’t subscribe to this magazine, so I don’t know if they’re just reprinting the same story each month.
posted by Jason on 8-31-2007 at 8:30 am