5 Reasons why womens mag sales are slumping
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Over at Jezebel, there’s a timely post about women’s mags and why US sales are plunging by double digit figures. It’s the same here. They’ve given five possible reasons and I’m agreeing strongly….. feel free to add your own.
1. The covers suck.
If you love fashion, why would you pick up a magazine that had a Photoshopped robo-Gwyneth on it? Or an animalistic basketball player? Or Sarah Jessica Parker wedged between a decapitated man’s legs? French Vogue‘s covers are daring and provocative; American Vogue relies on Kate Bosworth’s "superstar style." YAWN.2. Photoshop is out of hand.
Art directors rendered Drew Barrymore and Tina Fey almost unrecognizable. Scarlett Johannson’s waist was whittled. Not even "healthy" magazines like Self and Fitness are immune. Maybe readers are sick of the artifice?3. Expensive Shit.
Even if you adore the fall collections and think of Galliano as God,
you probably can’t afford a $13,000 dress. So when you have to look at
said $13,000 dress posed in the middle of a desert like it ain’t no thing, you can get miffed. No? How about a $270 Bible? Or a $246 Louis Vuitton headband?
4. "News" you can’t use.
Once you get past the cover and expensive shit, some mags are filled with mind-numbing, trite or just plain evil content. The Illustrated "How To Take A Shower" piece in Allure comes to mind. As does the quote from Vera Wang in Vogue: "The armpit is nasty, nasty. Even young girls can have this problem."5. The Internet.
When in doubt, blame this Web 2.0 thing everyone’s talking about!
The photoshopping and cover points particularly resonate with me – as does the point about expensive stuff. I was talking to a girlfriend this week about Grazia, asking what she thought and she said "It just feels like the wrong time to be espousing the philosophy of BUY BUY BUY. Besides the fact everyone is tightening their belts because the economy is tanking, aren’t we trying to buy less to reduce the production of greenhouse gasses and landfill?"
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I stopped bying a lot of womens magazines about a year ago. I have just turned 23 and they make me feel bad about myself. The rediculously skinny, unattainable bodies promoted as “curvy” and “very healthy” (Miranda Kerr) make me feel very, VERY bad about myself.
The constant cliched qoutes from tiny celebrities “I just love food, I’m just naturally thin, but I have curves” drive me nuts.
WHAT annoys me the most as well is there is a picture of a celebrity woman with a BMI of about 17 next to an article claiming that a BMI of 20 is the healthy ideal. What?? I’m sure if anyone examined the BMI of 90% of celebrities in these women’s magazines they wouldn’t find any with a BMI of 20.
I am not jealous (actually I am a bit haha) as my BMI is 19 myslef so I am a slim woman. It’s just that a picture of a teeny, tiny J.Hawk/M.Kerr/J.Alba claiming they are “so curvy” screws with my head to a point where reading these magazines makes me feel very bad about myself.
Also, the amount of celebrity worship in these magazines gets on my nerves as well.
The only magazine I buy is RUSSH and FRANKIE. These magazines do not drone on about the “curves” of female celebrities and weight and diet and how amazing certain celebrities are. The magazine often promote females as role models for their work as musicians or artists etc. NOT because they work out five times a day and pout in front of a camera….
There. Said it.
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Nice topic, Mia, and I agree with you.
All I can add is that I have stopped buying magazines (after being a complete junkie) because I can’t live up to the insane “standards” being set by these magazines, and it makes me upset that I can’t. Not just the beautiful women, but mostly the off-hand way they seem to think $2000 (or even just $200) is an acceptable amount to spend on a handbag.
My partner lovingly banned them from our house because after poring over them I used to become agitated and discontent with our life, with myself and what I earn or have achieved in my life. Sometimes to tears (I’m not nuts…just overworked!). I believe that we, on some level, no matter how wise or smart we are, compare ourselves to what we expose ourselves to, and if we are comparing ourselves to this unrealistic idea of “success”, we are bound to fail and feel bad about ourselves.
I don’t believe we can have our own home, holiday in Cannes, have 2 kids, a sizzling sex life, a size 8 body, a successful business empire, wear $2000 Louboutin heels, AND keep the house spotless, AND not suffer from depression. Yet tell me this is not what they generally portray!
On another level, I am tired of the same crap they churn out, YES EVEN THE FASHION. I am beginning to be more influenced by sites such as The Satorialist, which snapshots regular people on the street with their own sense of style in London, NY and Paris. Now that’s cool, and real.
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1. I will not buy any magazine with either or both Olsen twins on it. No talent to be found and are only role models for aspiring crack addicts. Any magazine who think anyone over 15 wants to read about them is delusional.
2. Ditto Paris HIlton. Errr….no thanks.
3. My regular purchase is In Style. Even if I can’t afford the really amazing outfits, it has so much variety in it, and means my eye is better trained to the sort of clothes I want to wear – without the price tag.
4. Nice editorial Mia. Agree with you 100%.
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why do the mags all have the same people on the covers? i’m sick of celebs on fashion magazines, would much rather see models.
many magazines just seem more like catalogues these days, full of “it” things and “must-haves”. the slavish copying of celebrity looks has become mind-numbing, how about individuality? if i see one more story about copying kate moss’ look i’ll scream. she has substance abuse problems and i don’t think magazines aimed at young readers should be holding her up as someone to imitate even if it’s only her outfit they are talking about.
many stories are so insulting to women. not all woman wnat to read gossip and stories on sex. i guess woman have more power than they think, stop buying. perhaps content, price point, etc may be reconsidered if readership drops enough.
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I buy the Women’s Weekly and hate myself for doing so – I don’t need untold pages of food recipes that I totally ignore – if I want to cook anything different, go to a cookbook. And in common with all the other weekly mags, the articles are like those 30 second grabs outside Parliament House – nothing of substance to read, or to come back to. And don’t start me on the endless articles about “Bec” or other insignificant people who aren’t doing anything interesting with their lives. “Who” was great in its first year or so, when it had in-depth articles, but now it’s just trash. And don’t start me on those pages of ads for psychics. I could put together a better magazine than the weeklies do. IMHO the only magazine worth the time of day is Vanity Fair, where there’s the best part of a month’s read, that I can pass on to friends, no matter how old the issue, or take to my doctor’s waiting rooms.
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Can’t stand the photoshopped pics of celebs. Can’t stand the first 6-8 pages of advertisements featuring creamy flawless skinned models touting skincare products. This is the most BRAZEN form of FALSE ADVERTISING I have ever seen. Why those companies haven’t been prosecuted is a mystery. The pictures are so photoshopped and airbrushed, that they don’t seem real at all.
I turn each page over and over and over until I can get to something substantial to read about. Having said that I must say that Marie Claire has GREAT stories. I will always love that magazine, if it is only a small section of it.
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I must be one of the few who still enjoy mags. I like Marie Claire, I still like to read about other things going on in the world and I don’t mind seeing some really expensive stuff as I don’t feel compelled to want to buy it, I just see it as trend research and its the makers of this impossibly expensive fashion that drive the industries where the workers get paid properly and the garments are made of quality fabrics. I do hate photoshoping though and hate that celebrities are on the cover and then the extremely boring article that follows.
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I used to buy Marie Claire and Madison each month. I stopped when they put the prices up again at the start of this year and I can honestly say I haven’t been tempted to start buying them again. They have some interesting articles but there are too many ads and arty farty photo shoots with clothes I’d have to sell a kidney to buy.
I read the free magazines that come with the Sunday papers and that’s enough for me. The internet gives me everything else!
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I love fashion. I love browsing and shopping. But I can’t justify buying these mags to even get ideas when they are such a rip-off.
I used to subscribe to Shop Til You Drop from the very first issue, but got tired of all the “teenage” fashion. I mean really, cover girls Paris Hilton or Christina Aguillera as people to model my buying habits or style on? I don’t think so…I then considered Marie Claire, and Vogue but thought what a waste of money!
Photoshopping, covers, the expensive clothing and accessories, crappy articles not to mention the cover price and all of the ads…they’re just not worth it. In fact, if you keep a magazine long enough, the articles seem to be repeated as does the fashion…eventually
It’s not just the fashion mags that are annoying though… When Notebook first came out, a couple of girlfriends and I started buying it, but we all stopped after a few issues because it seemed to repeat itself each month. …and I always felt manipulated by it, as if I was supposed to feel as if I was a certain type of woman when I read it, you know, “together, caring and affluent”.
Cath, couldn’t agree with you more! We need a magazine that is relevant to our lives now…not what a publisher/editor thinks we should be striving to be
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i concur with point two! i was going to buy shop til you drop last month but the cover irked me with its excess p’shopping, so i didn’t.
the only magazine i buy religiously is frankie as i like the content & can justify the price as it only comes out every two months!
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This was a good article Mia and I have to agree with you. I’m over the fakeness of it all. It just doesn’t seem to matter anymore why or what Nicole Richie looks like or owning the latest belt and shoe combo.
They are expensive and false and irrelevant. I love my gossip and finding out ‘stuff’ so I stick with WHO weekly every Friday but that is the only one of them I pay money for nowdays.
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Yes – the covers are boring (although for some reason, I’ll always buy a mag with Kate Hudson on the cover. It’s like – “If I look at it long enough – that hair will be mine!”).
Yes – photoshop is way out of hand, and it only serves to make the average chick feel, well, pretty average! Yes – the clothes are too expensive, although some mags do a good ‘cheap’ and ‘chic’ section, with options most people can afford. You don’t read mags for the news or ‘scoops’ anymore, when you can go straight to the net (it’s all your fault, Mia!).
But for me, mostly, the content’s just not that great. I guess I haven’t found a mag that relates to me as a woman, despite there being billions of them. I like interesting stories, but choose not to buy Marie Claire that often, as they often have quite depressing / gruesome stories (I know a lot of the stories have an interesting humanitarian angle, as well, but I like a lighter entertainment in my mags).
I like product, recipes, style and beauty tips, but not the airhead ‘How To Get A Man To Commit’ type articles – please! I quite often buy ‘chick’ mags and don’t read a single article! I like good, humourous writing, but you don’t often get that in a women’s mag. Reading a well written blog is so much better than reading a mag article at the moment – original stuff by real people.
I like house styling ideas, but can’t stand craft. I like to hear how interesting couples ‘make it work’ when they’ve got kids and careers, not just careers. I like to read about health, but don’t want to read a whole mag about it (especially when I’m having a coffee and chocolate/muffin mag session!).
The mags we have at the moment just don’t quite cut it for me right now, and while I’m maybe a bit unique in what I like, I think there might be a niche for a mag for chicks who ‘live out loud’ a little, despite their age or situation. A new mag, I think, Mia… just as soon as you meet that little ‘deadline’ you have coming up!
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The thing I hate about magazines is all of the ads. There’s more ads than content.
I get gossip/news etc from the internet.
I occasionally buy super food ideas (I have 5 mouths to feed) and every month I buy Readers Digest (I feel like such a Nanna). It’s small enough to keep in the toilet roll basket. It has nice little stories in it, jokes, medical updates, technology updates etc. I can pass it on to my Grampa when I’m done. I can read it again in 6 months and the stories are not out of date.
Every now and then if I feel like a treat I’ll buy a women’s mag at the checkout but it only takes an hour or so to read it and I end up wondering why I bothered.
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and they keep churning them out..i heard we’re to get Australian Glamour soon and Grazia has just come out – is that an English mag? they do show a lot of English celebs…i subscribe to many many mags both Australian and overseas issue but must admit although its visual candy and I do love to curl down with a cup of tea and magazine, after a while they all seem the same…the same celebs, the same fashion styles…what irks me even more is Australian mags using fashion layouts directly from their overseas sister issues…why cant they try to relate to Australian woman?
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This is a topic that really resonates with me too. Magazines are getting very expensive, and when you read them, they’re either full of garbage, full of completely irrelevant stuff, or else full of beautiful designer stuff that ordinary, fashion-loving, stylish people simply cannot afford. (Or if they do actually have the money, they’re too sensible to blow it all on a designer thingy)
Look at the labels for a start – an overwhelming percentage of clothing is made in China, whether you buy a Hot Options from Tar-jay, or a designer item from a “hot” boutique. Or even if they are made in Europe, they’re no better made. (My husband once got a voucher to buy good business shirts for work, and was rather chuffed to be able to go to Myer instead of Big W – till the first wash, and half the buttons fell off! Never had that problem with the nice Big W shirts he usually wore!)
Yes, it’s immoral to spend several thousand dollars on designer clothing and accessories when so many people can’t even afford a roof over their heads.
And since the topic of photoshopping has been raised, YES – it’s all fakery! From the perfect, even-textured, pore-less complexions of the models, to their impossible hand-span waists, to their anatomically impossible length of leg. Not to mention that 99.9% of mascara ads, from Maybelline to Dior, use FALSE EYELASHES to sell a mascara! Do they honestly believe we are TOTALLY stupid? Blind Freddy can tell that it’s just not possible to look like that by applying mascara… you need the big false lashes PLUS the mascara to look that way. Grrrr.
Photoshopping is not restricted to models either. The current issue of the Arabian Horse Society’s official publication, The Arabian Horse News, has an interesting article written by a professional equine photographer, warning that ads for horses are often not all they seem! Unscrupulous owners photoshop their horse pics, to make their sale prospects look more “typey” and beautiful than they really are; or to make their stallions look more perfect than the opposition’s stallions, to attract more mares to stud!
It really has got to the stage that you don’t know what to believe, any more. However, I do believe most of what I read in “Women’s Health” – a very good mag, and worth the money.
I liked the first issue of Grazia, but confess I looked through the second issue in the supermarket, but didn’t buy it. Sure, I LIKE the magazine, but there wasn’t anything so world-shatteringly good in the second one that spurred me to buy it… more like “more of the same”. Not bad quality, I hasten to add, but you honestly don’t need to spend $5 every week on “more of the same”. Can’t help wondering how long the mag will last. For starters, that glossy paper doesn’t come cheaply, and look at the list of staff on the payroll.
An excellent topic, Mia – thank you for raising it, because we can all get a bit carried away buying magazines!
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I totally agree. What is real? What is photoshopped? What can I afford? Is any of this applicable to me? What celebrity gossip haven’t I already read about on the internet? When do I have the time to actually sit down and read a magazine anyway apart from when I’m at the hairdressers every few months? I have 3 magazine subscriptions – one is womens health and the other two are industry publications and womens health is great and I will catch up on reading my stockpile of previous issues eventually but the others just go back out to recycling. Should I cancel the subscriptions? Yes, probably, but I don’t on the off chance that I might actually read them, you know, in that 5 minutes of spare time that I have between work, kids and husband.
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