We still want More! The Decline in Women’s Magazines | Sunday Chat

Hey Sweeties,

Back in June earlier this year on Twitter (@Clairey_tweetie), I outlined my increasing frustration with women’s magazine’s, highlighting how they portray this fake feminism when all many really do is bang on constantly about ‘how to please my man’ and ‘gaining the perfect bikini body’ as well as other such subjects that ultimately still lead back to those same messages. Cosmopolitan is one of the biggest culprits… why they claim so fiercely they are 100% behind feminism does make me giggle but ultimately… makes me stop reading. Don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t for the sheer campaigning by editors of women’s magazines such as Cosmo, female issues such as rape wouldn’t be taken as seriously by the government and such like so for that we are thankful and such recognition shouldn’t be ignored.

Women's Magazines

Women’s Magazines are Dying

But magazines are dying. In April we saw More! disappear suddenly off of the shelves and that to be honest, was tragic.

In the Telegraph yesterday, Josephine Fairley wrote a terrific article highlighting the drop in sales of women’s magazines; as someone that so loves sitting down and reading a magazine she hit the nail on the head with much of her argument. Aside from the issues I have raised concerning content, the internet has introduced a changing media landscape and clicked us into the digital era. The internet now tells us anything and the magazines that taught our mothers everything are struggling to keep up.

The Dawn of the Blog

However, this information can still be sourced from our favourite titles such as Elle, Grazia… but their online version. The blog also has now not only created a vast opportunity for un-published writers to get their work in front of people, it’s also provided another platform for those with interests to contribute ideas and advice to like-minded people. A blog speaks to the real person –you and me- not the woman that magazines only make us dream and aspire to being knowing that it’s never really going to happen. To be honest, by the time I can afford expensive clothes and beauty products my money will be going on mortgages and children.

What magazines really offer, though, is the opportunity to look at something that isn’t a screen. Something to flick, rather than click, through’ (Fairley; 2013: Telegraph).

Ultimately I am happy to support Fairley in her pledge to keep women’s magazines alive and spend time switching off offline, and not by switching off online trawling through Facebook and Twitter in my evenings but spending time doing the very thing I used to so enjoy… reading (flicking) through a magazine. I’ll even admit to you all that those magazines I read later turn into pictures I stick into a scrap book (that is now in volume 3 –see them here) of fashion ideas and styles I like for those days I need a little inspiration!

So don’t let us allow the death of magazines just yet… we’re not ready. I am a long-term subscriber to Elle and I quite like the occasional flick through Heat and you know what, yes I can’t afford half of the clothes they photograph and suggest as the new season look, and I hate seeing tons of celebrities being scrutinised for the smallest bodily flaw but you know what… I still like flicking through all the same.

What are your thoughts on the decline of women’s magazines?

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