magazines

The Internet Is The Biggest Threat to Publishing Since the... Xerox Machine?

Hamilton Nolan · 03/13/12 10:02AM

Harper's Magazine publisher John R. "Rick" MacArthur is a man who was born wealthy and has used some of his wealth to publish a great magazine. That's good. Where he pays his staff notoriously meager salaries and fights against their efforts to form a union. That's bad. Rick MacArthur, though, has one overriding redeeming aspect: he is fucking hilariously dumb when he talks about the internet.

Lana Del Rey on Lana Del Rey: 'My Real Fans Know I'm Not a Showstopper'

Leah Beckmann · 01/24/12 07:30PM

Complex magazine features Lana Del Rey, last week's sacrificial lamb, on the cover of their February/March issue and she looks exactly as you would expect her to look. She is a sexy, wet, pouty vintage movie poster. Like a faded French ad you would put in your bathroom if you were 21. The image is actually a great visual response to last week's issues; it is a strong look-at-me-I'm-still-standing-despite-all-you-mean-'ol-raindrops-pouring-down-on-my-talentless-parade, statement.

Dumb Magazine to Let Dumb Readers Write the Whole Thing

Hamilton Nolan · 01/09/12 11:40AM

As the recession and the popularity of the internet ground away at the traditional magazine world like the opposing teeth of a hungry beaver, everyone has had to make adjustments. Some had layoffs. Other cut back on pages. Still others turned to outrageous promotional gimmicks. But Ladies Home Journal may have hit on the most transformative idea of all: just have readers write a bunch of crap and then put that crap in the magazine instead of whatever other crap your own writer were writing, in the past.

Is Tyler Brule Cool?

Hamilton Nolan · 01/05/12 11:39AM

Tyler Brule is the publisher of high-fashion design magazine Wallpaper and of Monocle, that beacon of "lifestyle sensuality and gaywad uptightness" that could be viewed as either the world's most pretentious or (incorrectly) most inspiring magazine. It sure is something. Though not a lifestyle magazine.

The Best Things We Read All Year

Gawker Staff · 12/30/11 04:00PM

If you're like us, you spent a lot of time this year reading words. But which words were the best words? (Not "amazeballs," for sure.) Here, each Gawker staffer recommends the best things he or she read this year—books, articles, blogs, comics and more.

The Insane Price Gouging of iPad Magazines

Ryan Tate · 12/15/11 01:50PM

So, you'd like to advertise in an iPad magazine? Ha ha, sucker. Sure, you can buy an ad, right in an interactive version of a fancy Condé Nast lifestyle glossy. But you're going to pay through the nose with surcharges, because you're a mark.

Here's a Good Way to Deal With Magazine Photoshopping

Max Read · 11/28/11 11:15PM

Now, we don't want to alarm you, but it's time you learned the truth. Magazines sometimes touch up photos of celebrities. I know. I know! It's shocking to think that Redbook might not be the absolute model of a journalistic commitment to the truth. But there it is. And here's a good way to deal with it.

Time Promotes Anxiety at Home, Provides News Everywhere Else

Lauri Apple · 11/26/11 05:34PM

For its December 5 issue, Time Magazine is running a cover story in the U.S. titled "Why Anxiety Is Good for You." They thought you should know that your frazzled, overworked or underemployed, recession-tempered emotional state will eventually produce personal benefits. You just have to be patient.

How to Get Fired From the Washington Post

Hamilton Nolan · 11/22/11 03:17PM

In your tricky Tuesday media column: how to get fired at the Washington Post, NPR listeners are just so ugh, Lane Brown to New York mag, Michelangelo Signorile to HuffPo, and a shocking report about women in media.

2011 Was Not the Year of the Magazine

Hamilton Nolan · 11/21/11 09:19AM

Ever since the mediapocalypse that occurred simultaneously with the overall economy-pocalypse, the magazine industry has been, shall we say, not at its best. The financially weaker magazines died off at an alarming rate; the survivors, shaky or not, assumed that they were the strong ones, destined to emerge from the hard times with renewed vigor, ready to soar to ever greater heights as the wounded economy began its healing process.