We recently were chatting with a pal in the magazine business about how, one day, we started receiving Star Magazine in place of Radar, which unfortunately shuttered at the end of '08. Gawker had addressed this particular change-out (it looks like there were choices that included Shape and a men's mag) a few months back.
Our friend says the mid-subscription change is not uncommon these days, and now that we think back, we recall receiving some sort of beach magazine when a sort of home/lifestyle deal we'd been subscribing to closed. And while photos of sandy stretches and clapboard buildings were pleasant enough, we never really connected with it, and it ended up piling next to the backdoor.
Here's the truth. Magazines are marvelous, period. Since practically the invention of paper, they've been a little luxury people have rarely minded springing for, and celeb magazines? We predict they'll continue to be through-the-roof through the very end of time, and possibly beyond the end of time. Not a controversial viewpoint.
But it can be difficult, especially in these days of titles getting shut down left and right, to find a suitable match for subscribers who have already paid through June of 2011. This guy had been receiving an auto magazine that's kaput; should he now get the magazine about wood, or something celebrating extreme sports? Difficult, and we can imagine the meetings in which these decisions go down aren't easy.
So, with that in mind, we're off to read about celebrities shopping for milk, and what skirts are in or out. Sorry Radar.
