Those we have lost
As we wave goodbye to 2020, Rosalind Moody pays tribute to some of the valiant magazine victims of the deepest recession since records began
Writing this at the beginning of December, the UK news was packed full of unfortunate headlines; Arcadia group went into administration and Debenhams cut their losses, and their staff. As this spells the end of the Great British high street as we know it, does it mean the same for the Great British newsagent’s shelf, in this country and abroad?
I’m afraid I’ve got more closure notices for you, but I promise, by the end of this feature, you’ll see the light at the end of the very long dark tunnel that is 2020. We all know there’s nothing like a special collector’s edition of your favourite glossy, and I hope your favourite survived – or at least went digital. But, with too many titles to count (well, I did in fact count 1,188 issues, according to online magazine library Zinio) that have either been postponed, doubled up or its press stopped for the last time, there’s no denying that consumer magazine publishing is in a sorry state.
I’ve heard many people say that 2020 changed the course of history, but my opinion is that it has changed content forever, and the way we consume it. People that pass away get obituaries, but where’s such a service for decadesold mags, ones that generations of staff poured their hearts and souls into, that folded in the great pandemic of the 21st century? Well, the metaphorical paper for such heartfelt trade tributes may well have collapsed this year, too. But there’s power in the printed word, and if no one publishes it, how can we come together in collective thought, just at a time when we all need guidance most?
Yes, it’s we writers, publishing staff, editors, and thus our collective readership, that are set to be hit twice as hard as the overall economy, according to the Oxford Economics study. Where our creative industry was once growing at five times the average rate of our economy, it contributed more than the automotive, aerospace, life sciences, and fossil fuels industries combined. Since the life scientists were in the spotlight this year in the vaccine race, I’ll happily applaud them – but where, I ask, is our industry’s government bailout cheque?
Gathering my research for this feature was unexpectedly difficult because oft times, magazines faded into nothing more than a Facebook post to their followers, and with many issues already suspended, there was often no final ‘goodbye edition’ to readers. But for legendary music mag Q, which closed after 34 years after an initial review, its editor Ted Kessler did get to (albeit heartbreakingly) apologise in his final editor’s letter, saying: ‘I must apologise profusely for my failure to keep Q afloat.’ I can’t imagine what Ted felt writing those words, much less his staffers being told of their immediate job loss via Zoom.
Q’s fellow fallen mags that follow range across genres, circulations and demographics, but all of them will be sorely missed. Curse you, Covid.
Common thought back in circa 2005, when the internet crept into day-to-day reality, was that print would be relegated eventually, as it inevitably has done.
But, Covid was the catalyst that sealed many’s fate, especially those less digitally developed. Sadly, things were already going south last year for TI Media’s
Marie Claire, which ceased the UK print edition after November 2019 to become a digital-only offering, a smart move with 2 million monthly website users. US satirical publication Mad Magazine ceased also in 2019 after 67 years. Music publication NME was closed a year before that, in March 2018, after 66 years – a move that signalled the end of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, as if Covid and social distancing regulations wouldn’t have killed those things anyway.
Just as NME was a product of its time, so was Be Kind, a collectible with an eco-conscious kerb appeal, launched in January 2019 with beautifully illustrated covers worthy of any Instagram grid or millennial coffee table. It was closed by its owner Prime Impact, suggesting that in this Covid-ravaged world, there’s simply not enough space for kindness. There’s no use for events, either: its sister title Om Yoga was put on pause over the summer, just when it should have been growing its events brand, and a very successful one at that. When this Covid catastrophe is over, it’s Europe’s largest yoga festival and in the past has drawn crowds of over 30,000 visitors. Mag Mother and Baby closed its print completely, its focus shifting instead to the brand’s annual awards. In an Instagram-obsessed society, influencer campaigns and ticketed experiences are the smartest ways for brands to branch out. It seems we all want a red carpet to walk on, rather than just a good mag to read in the bath.
Talking of glitz and glamour, it was reported that Oprah Winfrey’s O, The Oprah Magazine’s last issue would be this December (though Oprah herself hasn’t commented on the twenty-yearold mag’s closure). As of 2020, the average paid circulation for the magazine was 2.2 million copies, according to the Daily Mail. And with a large black subscription base – 35%, in fact – the
world surely needs such a title to lead the Black Lives Matter movement confidently into 2021. But with worldwide fame, her net worth net worth $340 million, will her digital presence manage to overtake her groundbreaking print influence? It’s an objective, underlined many times, on every publisher’s to-do list.
However digitally agile they aspire to be, hobby magazines, often more niche than mainstream consumer but with a more loyal engaged following, weren’t all out of the red. The Official Xbox magazine is one of six shut down by Future Publishing, though you’d expect gaming to be at an alltime high over lockdown. From the other side of the spectrum, regional read Essex Rider was ‘an important one’, says horse lover Kirsty Davies. ‘It sadly fell out of publication when the owner became ill. It was a fabulous local magazine full of local triumphs, news, adverts and upcoming events. I certainly mourn it!’ Other such mags, such as Practical Photography, established in 1959, is one of Bauer’s titles to publish its last in July. Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine’s suspension and Cross Stitch Crazy’s closure were just two of the craft industry to be affected, a business that contributes £3.4bn to the UK economy. The niche hobby magazines that survive will be those ticking both the boxes for monthly print and monthly ‘memberships’, how-to video subscriptions and remote ‘clubs’. It seems in 2020 our enforced social distance has caused us to crave community, social intimacy and shared learning, albeit virtually.
It seems German company Bauer was one of the most prolific door-shutters, and not just in the UK; in New Zealand, much to the dismay of well, everyone, it closed much-loved titles New Zealand Listener and the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, both which have been published since the 1930s. That’s after it allegedly hibernated what we would deem big players, Australian counterparts for NW, OK!, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, as well as
InStyle, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and
Good Health – but whether Covid was the reason, it is disputed, since Australia and New Zealand’s sincerely low case numbers compared to the UK. What’s the minimum amount of copies a magazine can survive on, I hear you ask? Harper’s Bazaar, which had been in print for more than two decades, had an average readership of 177,000 per issue, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘I’m wearing black today because I’m in mourning for the Australian magazine industry,’ former magazine editor and icon Nene King told A Current Affair. ‘When I was doing
Women’s Day, we sold 960,000 copies every week.’ Not surprisingly, she is credited with turning Women’s Day into one of the highest selling magazines in history back in its nineties heyday.
But, all is not lost; we’ve even seen one US publication, Playgirl, relaunched and ‘reclaimed’ this year, proudly ‘going back to its feminist roots’ for the first time in decades. Its groundbreaking first cover features a pregnant nude Chloe Sevigny, and makes quite the entrance back onto the shelf. Maybe – hopefully – a major rebrand will also be on the cards for more dead, but not yet buried, publications.
Reader, I implore you to sign up to at least one subscription, print or digital (many mags produce both versions). Most of us own at least one tech device to access via Amazon Kindle, Readly or pocketmags. com, to name a few platforms – and one in three Americans even owns a smartphone, tablet and computer. By signing up, you’re keeping hard-working staff in work, and empowering them to produce better journalism than Dave, your non-informed friend spouting theories and fake news on social media. Make that your New
Year’s resolution – to support small and smart. Iceberg Press, owner of The Simple Things (which had its own May and July issues delayed) delivers a slick smorgasbord magazine shop via picsandink.com. Log on and allow yourself to be a kid in the candy store again, dipping into new issues like treats – because we’ve seen just how vulnerable they are now.
What better words of wisdom to end on than from Alexandra Schulman, former Vogue UK editor, on the quality of keepability: ‘[magazines will] be something that people want to keep – more like a book than a disposable magazine,’ she told the BBC. Nene King is also optimistic about the future of magazine publishing, despite, like the rest of us, being unsure what form it might take. ‘Otherwise, we’ll read one day the Woman’s Day and New Idea have been put together,” she warns. A merger, it seems, is not an option for every magazine, like it was for Golf World and Today’s Golfer magazine (after more than forty years as stand-alone publications).
May we once again grow to five times the rate of the wider economy, because creativity thrives in chaos. As
Ted Kessler ended his announcement tweet of Q’s closure, ‘on the plus side, we’re all available for work’. Necessity is the mother of invention, and we will always need news and features to read, and there will always be writers to provide it. I believe it’s a new frontier, and as the supply chain gets vaccinated – that’s all the printers, lorry drivers, retail workers and everyone in between, all of them crucial to the magazine-reading experience – we may see an upturn in industry in 2021, and favourite titles reimagined into giftable bookazines, special seasonal issues or innovative online brands. Besides, nothing lasts forever, and that goes for Fleet Street and everything it represents, too. Now, when this is all over, somebody please launch a beautiful bookazine called Great British Grit – I think we’ll all be needing a subscription.