Do you still read magazines? Do you pick up a daily newspaper? Or have you moved entirely online. Andrew of Engagement 101 challenged me to list the three magazine I would subscribe to in printed form. Well, in fact, I subscribe to four, and buy a fifth regularly, and here they are:
1 & 2: Digital SLR Photography & EOS Magazine
A few years back, I used to subscribe to two major types of hobby magazine: Mac magazines and photography magazines. I haven't bought a Mac magazine in two years or more, because everything they do is done better by the internet. Photography magazines remain a mainstay of my dead tree reading because one area print excels is showing photographs in all their glory. EOS Magazine is a niche title aimed directly at those people with Canon's SLRs. It's beautifully designed, with really useful content and some great, inspirational photography. It's a really nice object to own, and that's why I look forward to it turning up each month. Digital SLR Photography is actually a case of one editor's skill causing me to buy the product. Daniel Lezano was launch editor of Photography Monthly, and in it he created the photography mag I'd always wanted. Beautiful design, great images, fascinating interviews and useful advice. It was a lovely piece of work. Then, all of a sudden, the group editor was editor, and Dan was gone. The magazine went downhill quickly and I dropped my subscription a few months later. A year or so later, I ran across this new mag, and have been buying it ever since.
1 & 2: Digital SLR Photography & EOS Magazine
A few years back, I used to subscribe to two major types of hobby magazine: Mac magazines and photography magazines. I haven't bought a Mac magazine in two years or more, because everything they do is done better by the internet. Photography magazines remain a mainstay of my dead tree reading because one area print excels is showing photographs in all their glory. EOS Magazine is a niche title aimed directly at those people with Canon's SLRs. It's beautifully designed, with really useful content and some great, inspirational photography. It's a really nice object to own, and that's why I look forward to it turning up each month. Digital SLR Photography is actually a case of one editor's skill causing me to buy the product. Daniel Lezano was launch editor of Photography Monthly, and in it he created the photography mag I'd always wanted. Beautiful design, great images, fascinating interviews and useful advice. It was a lovely piece of work. Then, all of a sudden, the group editor was editor, and Dan was gone. The magazine went downhill quickly and I dropped my subscription a few months later. A year or so later, I ran across this new mag, and have been buying it ever since.
3. The Atlantic
I picked this excellent magazine up randomly when I was on holiday in Florida a few years back - and ended up taking out a subscription. I really wish there was a magazine like this in the UK - a monthly, current affairs mag that covers a whole range of subjects, with really in-depth reporting and some great illustration and photography. This is real "sit back and enjoy" journalism, intelectually-challenging, thought-provoking and really best enjoyed in an armchair with a good whisky (or possibly a cup of coffee if read before midday...) The sharp left wing/right wing divide of near UK equivalents like The Spectator or the New Statesmen leave me cold, so I pay to have this shipped across the, well, Atlantic.
4. Fast Company
Another US import, and a print magazine about the digital age, to boot. I should be handing in my social media credentials now, shouldn't I? But it's another magazine with great design and great photography, which is always a winner with me. But beyond that, it's one of those real "discovery by browsing" titles, where I come across things I didn't know that I wanted to know. The web isn't good at that, but paper is ideally suited to it.
That said, the attarction of this magazine is slowly being eaten away by the web - including its own, strong website.
5. BBC Countryfile
Lastly, my rural porn. I'm a countryside boy at heart. I grew up in rural Scotland, and I yearn to escape Lewisham and go and live somewhere where encoutering animals is a daily occurance, not something noteworthy. For a long time Sunday morning's Countryfile has been an interesting combination of longing and torture, and now the monthly magazine is much the same. Again, as in common with the other titles, nice design and lashings of ginger beer photography, a good degree of browsability, and plenty of genuinely useful material. Oh, and they have an enjoyable podcast, too.
I suppose I should tag some people. How about Kristine, Joanna, Andy, Dan and Becky?
I picked this excellent magazine up randomly when I was on holiday in Florida a few years back - and ended up taking out a subscription. I really wish there was a magazine like this in the UK - a monthly, current affairs mag that covers a whole range of subjects, with really in-depth reporting and some great illustration and photography. This is real "sit back and enjoy" journalism, intelectually-challenging, thought-provoking and really best enjoyed in an armchair with a good whisky (or possibly a cup of coffee if read before midday...) The sharp left wing/right wing divide of near UK equivalents like The Spectator or the New Statesmen leave me cold, so I pay to have this shipped across the, well, Atlantic. 4. Fast Company
Another US import, and a print magazine about the digital age, to boot. I should be handing in my social media credentials now, shouldn't I? But it's another magazine with great design and great photography, which is always a winner with me. But beyond that, it's one of those real "discovery by browsing" titles, where I come across things I didn't know that I wanted to know. The web isn't good at that, but paper is ideally suited to it. That said, the attarction of this magazine is slowly being eaten away by the web - including its own, strong website.
5. BBC Countryfile
Lastly, my rural porn. I'm a countryside boy at heart. I grew up in rural Scotland, and I yearn to escape Lewisham and go and live somewhere where encoutering animals is a daily occurance, not something noteworthy. For a long time Sunday morning's Countryfile has been an interesting combination of longing and torture, and now the monthly magazine is much the same. Again, as in common with the other titles, nice design and lashings of I suppose I should tag some people. How about Kristine, Joanna, Andy, Dan and Becky?
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I'd just like to say that the one major advantag I find of paper based media is that they are bath safe, unlike electronic gadgets.
We, inevitably, have a lot of discussions in the office about the doom of printed magazines. I've always argued that they're safe, until the point you can read the internet in the bath without worrying about losing hundreds of pounds of kit…
I like Prospect for some of the reasons you seem to like The Atlantic, the one thing it doesn't do is photography, but there is fiction if you like that sort of thing.
I have to admit to liking Mojo too, but it just goes to show that I have hit my middle-age and soon enough I'll be telling my kids music wasn't like that in my day!
Oh and I've been given a subscription to Delicious which has kept our dinner table much more varied that it ever was before.
Yep, I read newspapers and magazines. Too many to count. And I read books. I haven't yet tried electronic books. I figuree I'll give up the paper & mags before I give up books.