Magazine Nerd: Guilty!

Yeah, that's me. Among other things, I am a bit of a magazine nut. I enjoy an appealing layout, good content, splashy graphics. I subscribe to more magazines than I really should, and I even read some of them. Or parts of them.

In an earlier post, I tried to describe the magazine that a friend and I published back in our youth. we reached a circulation of 20 or so, and sent one to a random address in California just to be able to say our reach was coast to coast.

Ours, like many these days, did not survive. We chose to kill our media empire and go off to college or something. Couldn't get Rupert Murdoch to pick it up on our terms.

Anyhow, although the whole print medium industry is considered a dinosaur in its last death throes in many if not most quarters, I still enjoy that tactile feel of the printed page in my hands, on my lap, as I peruse the pages. I mean, who has not just simply THRILLED to the scenery in "Arizona Highways" as they waited for the nurse to usher them in to their appointment? (or if you were in a pediatrician's office, it would be "Highlights for Children").

Sol if I were to inventory my magazine intake, I must get two or three magazines or journals related to my work. Then I get three music (a bigger obsession than magazines, certainly) related magazines (two of which are only quarterly, at best, thankfully). We give small sums of money to a few causes that insist upon publishing and sendiing out their own publications. Some, like "Audobon", at least provide wonderful photography, which I scan, and which often beats reading actual articles in these hectic times.

Then there's "This Old House", which comes so dirt cheap that I re-upped. And there is my favorite monthly, "Wired", which changes their whole graphic approach about once every two years. I don't even know why I like "Wired" so much; the content tends to be all over the place. Maybe that's its charm. You never know what they may feature. The general theme is "here is how technology is making our world so great/scary/fun/apocalyptic (depending on the article)".

I have gotten one newsweekly since I was a freshman in college: Newsweek. Sometimes their editorial slant can drive me nuts; usually, I have no major quarrel. I am one of those few who go for good reasoned theory rather than rants, and at least Newsweek does not suffer the rants much, so I appreciate most of the columnists, no matter where they are coming from. As long as they are including some original thought and positive suggestions, I can appreciate them without necessarily agreeing with them.

At any rate, Newsweeek has just undergone a massive design change, and actually, a content one as well. This is big stuff for a magazine junkie like me. Paging through magazines just getting their "feel" is somehow important, and the new layout looks clean and well organized, based on the first new issue received this week.

I could go on, but there is something occurring right now that trumps magazine transformations, and that is that northern Ohio is currently enjoying those two or three days of PERFECT WEATHER that tend to come and go all too quickly every spring. So for now, it's time to put down these things and get outside. I'm outta here.