Do We Still Love Print Magazines?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: When I was just a year out of college, long before writing a crime novel was even a glimmer in my imagination, I took a course in book and magazine publishing at Rice University in Houston. It was modeled on a well known course at Radcliffe, which is also now sadly defunct. The six week Rice course was divided into three weeks focused on magazine publishing and three weeks focused on book publishing. It seems odd to me now that the two were given equal attention, but maybe that is just because I write novels.

This got me thinking, however, about the demise of print periodicals, and wondering how many of our Reds and readers still subscribe to, or buy,  print magazines. We subscribe to several: Bon Appetit (food, duh,) The Economist, Rolling Stone (although I never have any idea who most of the artists are, sigh,) and my daughter gives me a subscription to D Magazine, which I read mostly for the local food scene coverage. 

These, however, are what keep me going to the bookstore every month!

UK Country Living (my fave!,) UK Homes and Gardens, English Home–I will buy anything British on the rack. And I do legitimately count them as research–many interiors and exteriors have stealthily made their way into my books! I also keep stacks of old issues, because they help transport me to whatever season is happening in my book in progress.

You can't subscribe to these in the U.S., but I know approximately when my nearest B&N gets them in, and I plan a jaunt to the store accordingly. And, of course, once I set foot in the store, I never manage to walk out without a book or two as well. I also love looking at all the magazines I don't buy.

So how about it, dear Reds, do you still subscribe, or impulse buy, print periodicals? Or do you read everything online?

P.S.: And here's an interesting fact for you–I read somewhere recently that the best place to have your book featured is in the CostCo Connection, which goes out to more than 14.5 MILLION members every month!!! 

LUCY BURDETTE: I used to LOVE magazines–Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, MS Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and more. My mother loved them too and would retreat to her room to snack and read when she got home from teaching and wasn’t quite ready to face the four of us. Now the only thing we subscribe to is the Sunday Times. I miss those magazines but I couldn’t keep up with them, especially living in two places. By the way, my first ever subscription was to Tiger Beat. Oh how I loved reading those!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Our once-upon a time subscriptions included Highlights for the kids, Sports Illustrated for Ross and Time magazine for me. Time is still doing good articles, but a weekly news magazine today sounds like using telegrams to communicate long distance.

However, I still subscribe to The Atlantic online because I love their long-form journalism. And you can take my monthly print copies of HOUSE BEAUTIFUL and HGTV MAGAZINE when you pry them from my cold, dead, etc. Beside having better quality images than you can get on a screen, there’s also the delight of opening the mailbox and seeing, instead of bills and sales flyers, something I actually want to read!

DEBS: I hope HGTV is on the newstands--I'm going to look next time I hit the magazine racks at B&N!

JENN McKINLAY: My magazine of choice is Atomic Ranch! It’s all about mid century modern architecture and interiors and I love it so much! Other than that, it’s knitting magazines. I have a ridiculous amount - Vogue, Noro, etc. - and now I’ve added Little Looms for my weaving obsession. I do want a subscription to Prevention. I used to read it all the time when I was a hospital librarian and I miss it. There’s something so calming about sitting outside with a magazine and a cup of coffee and enjoying a bright sunny  day.

RHYS BOWEN: I grew up with magazines: first Girl and a couple of other British girl’s  magazines. The first one I had a subscription to was Private Eye, the satirical magazine of the Sixties. For years we had National Geogaphic, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Time, Consumer’s Digest, various travel magazines, Alfred Hitchcock and probably others I have forgotten. Now we spend half the year in different states my magazines are limited to those I get through Amazon Prime as well as Smithsonian online.  But I really miss National Geographic. 

Magazines are a treat when I’m traveling in Europe. All those English country living ones. 

HALLIE EPHRON: When I was growing up we subscribed to magazines, too. LIFE. LOOK. TIME. NEW YORKER. And of course we got a morning AND an evening paper delivered. 

And wasn’t the one good thing about going to the dentist, getting to read the latest copy of PEOPLE? Now I haven’t a clue who those people on the covers are.

I’ve let our subscription to THE NEW YORKER lapse… we had stacks of them, unread, which I finally composted. But I loved that magazine and credit it with ideas for at least three of my mystery novels. 

I still get the BOSTON GLOBE delivered and subscribe to the online versions of THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE WASHINGTON POST …. AND I subscribe to my local town newspaper which needs all the support it can get. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I adore THE NEW YORKER–there is always something unpredictably great, or surprisingly interesting. They do stack up, though, that’s for sure. We get NEW YORK, and I’m not sure why, but it’s fun and hip. I used to get InStyle and Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple and what was that briefly terrific one for women? Not Ms., but there was another one. Remember? It was great until they ruined it. (I will pause here while you think of all the other things that fall into that category.)

I used to love Bon Appetit, and had a massive stack of them, all bookmarked. And then ignored. PEOPLE is for the manicure place, too, but NO idea who is on the cover, so agree. My book THE OTHER WOMEN  came right from a People Magazine, though, so thank you, People.

(And let me add that it is much easier to use a recipe from a magazine than from a website.)

DEBS: Weirdly, although I use Bon Appetit online for recipes, I hardly ever cook from the print version!

How about you, dear readers? Do you still get magazines in your mailbox, or pick them up at the grocery store or bookstore? (It is a treat when I have to go in our CVS and get to look through the magazine and paperback display!) And, if not, do you miss them?

Oh, and does anyone remember the magazine Hank is talking about?

REDS ALERT!!! Flora is the winner of an ebook from Tina Whittle!! Send me your email or address, Flora, at deb @ deborahcrombie dot com, and I will pass along to Tina! Congratulations!!