Magazines - does anyone bother?

Lollipop95 · 02-07-2015 05:11PM

I'm 20 and buy magazines quite regularly. I buy Inside Soap (all the gossip from the soaps and contains interviews with cast members) every week and have been doing religiously since 2007!

There'll always be a need for magazines imo, I'd be shocked if they were no longer available. There's a huge target market audience for them. If there wasn't such a huge demand for them then they wouldn't be sold in any big or small supermarket/newsagents/shops.

With that being said, I've never subscribed and never will - don't see the point

DEFTLEFTHAND · 02-07-2015 05:22PM

Womens magazines like Hello and OK still sell hundreds of thousands of copies each week.

Personally I hardly ever buy one anymore unless at an airport or railway station, it will usually be something music orientated like Q.

ScumLord · 02-07-2015 05:24PM

OldGoat wrote: »

Apart from those I'll pick up photography magazines depending on content that month.

The photography magazines are fine to get every so often, they typically tell the Same story each month in a different way. I can't remember which one does it but they bring out an end of year edition with all the best stuff/tutorials from the year. It's big and expensive but with the price of those magazines and the repetition it's probably a much cheaper and more useful edition.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 02-07-2015 05:37PM

Have a subscription to Time.

I actually find it easier to read an article in print, whereas I get distracted and impatient with digital.

02-07-2015 06:00PM

Men's Vogue was pretty good. I'm surprised it was taken from circulation, given how second and third fiddles, like GQ, have survived.

GQ is alright.

I read Men's Health at my Dentist's and nick the occasional Horse & Hound from a friend's car. I probably haven't bought a magazine in over a year (the last being the hideosly overpriced Monocle) The only magazines I can't stand are Hello! and The Economist.

CatLou · 02-07-2015 06:14PM

I buy the Wired magazine every couple of months - US or UK edition depending on which seems more interesting. NatGeo too if I'm in the mood.

For longer flights I like to pick up the Courrier International, lots of good articles on current affairs.

ancapailldorcha · 02-07-2015 06:37PM

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Men's Vogue was pretty good. I'm surprised it was taken from circulation, given how second and third fiddles, like GQ, have survived.

GQ is alright.

I read Men's Health at my Dentist's and nick the occasional Horse & Hound from a friend's car. I probably haven't bought a magazine in over a year (the last being the hideosly overpriced Monocle) The only magazines I can't stand are Hello! and The Economist.

What's wrong with The Economist?

jonnny68 · 02-07-2015 07:12PM

i like four four two but the price of it here €7 odd is scandalous so don't bother, same as GQ, Esquire and some of the gentlemans magazines vastly overpriced so i couldnt be arsed, once in the blue moon will i buy a magazine now.

jonnny68 · 02-07-2015 07:15PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Womens magazines like Hello and OK still sell hundreds of thousands of copies each week.

Personally I hardly ever buy one anymore unless at an airport or railway station, it will usually be something music orientated like Q.

dreadful magazines but plenty of birds are into looking at celebritys and dreaming they were like them,etc, personally id sooner watch paint dry than read any of those crap womans magazines.

_Brian · 02-07-2015 07:16PM

National Geographic.. Have annual subscription.

Snickers Man · 02-07-2015 07:17PM

Still get the Phoenix most times. There's always something interesting in it but it's a bit flimsy. Lots of padding.

jonnny68 · 02-07-2015 07:18PM

_Brian wrote: »

National Geographic.. Have annual subscription.

i do as well and i got it on special offer for the whole year for 9 pounds sterling so cant pass up an opportunity like that, very good informative magazine with some excellent photos.

BMJD · 02-07-2015 07:45PM

I used to buy car magazines quite a bit but they are just too expensive to justify anymore. I pick up the odd one or two for a flight or holidays.

Aidric · 02-07-2015 08:07PM

I don't have a subscription but I buy The Economist quite regularly. It's a really great digest of world affairs and often has good special supplements.

In my early twenties I used to buy GQ regularly but these days its a shoddy publication.

OldGoat · 03-07-2015 08:32AM

ScumLord wrote: »

The photography magazines are fine to get every so often, they typically tell the Same story each month in a different way. I can't remember which one does it but they bring out an end of year edition with all the best stuff/tutorials from the year. It's big and expensive but with the price of those magazines and the repetition it's probably a much cheaper and more useful edition.

Most hobbiest mags are the same. There is a limited few aspects to the hobby/sport and those main topics get rehashed again and again every couple of years, usually in the form of "Top ten tips to get the best from your...".
Still, we only buy them for the ads anyway.

My new NatGeo arrived in the post yesterday.

ancapailldorcha · 03-07-2015 02:03PM

Does anyone here read The Economist actually?

whomitconcerns · 03-07-2015 02:05PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Does anyone here read The Economist actually?

used to get it. Its quite good. Better than most news magazines.

sunnysoutheast · 03-07-2015 02:09PM

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Nowadays there has to be a free tank or model plane etc. to get me to buy a magazine so I usually end up with issue 1 or 2 of "Tanks, tanks tanks" or "World War 2 Fighters in Miniature" for €1.99 and then forgetting about it when it goes up to 9.99 or whatever the regular price is.

.....or you battle on to the bitter end of a "partwork" and suddenly realise that you've spent £3000 on a six foot long model of the Bismarck, and have to move it off the kitchen table.

I subscribe to Private Eye, only about £30 a year.

Used to subscribe to The Economist, but went off it a couple of years ago.

03-07-2015 05:06PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

What's wrong with The Economist?

It has a very boring editorial bias that panders to opinions that its readership already holds: it never challenges orthodoxy, which for an economics publication, would be depressing and bewildering. But The Economist is not an economics publication in any real academic sense. It's a news magazine with some principles of Freshman Economics thrown in.

ancapailldorcha · 03-07-2015 05:07PM

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It has a very boring editorial bias that panders to opinions that its readership already holds: it never challenges orthodoxy, which for an economics publication, would be depressing and bewildering. But The Economist is not an economics publication in any real academic sense.

My knowledge of the publication is that it has a strong pro free market bent but that's about it.

osarusan · 03-07-2015 05:08PM

I used to buy Empire magazine for a while, but stopped after it disappeared very far up its own arse.

Grayson · 03-07-2015 06:06PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Does anyone here read The Economist actually?

I probably buy it about once a month. Not enough to warrant a digital subscription. It's actually surprisingly good, Far better than time or Newsweek.

There's also a couple of philosophy mags I but too.
And I bought someone a national geographic subscription for xmas.

However I was looking through the magazine section in a shop yesterday. I was wondering who the hell buys all the linux magazines. Surely if you're using linux and want to stay updated you'll go online. Even beginners get better stuff online.

Aidric · 03-07-2015 06:22PM

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It has a very boring editorial bias that panders to opinions that its readership already holds: it never challenges orthodoxy, which for an economics publication, would be depressing and bewildering. But The Economist is not an economics publication in any real academic sense. It's a news magazine with some principles of Freshman Economics thrown in.

As a tool for a weekly digest of world affairs interspersed with the odd interesting opinion piece I feel it serves a purpose and is eminently readable.

I agree that it perhaps tows a safe conservative editorial line except when it comes to Russia.

OiL RiG · 03-07-2015 07:25PM

I used to pick up a copy of BBC's 'The Sky at Night' every month. This was mainly because it had charts and guides which were easier to read outside than fiddling with a blinding smartphone screen. Though I've fallen out of the habit, I think there's something nicer about reading magazines. I guess they're going the way of the newspaper though...

Enjoy Heroin Responsibly · 03-07-2015 07:32PM

US/UK titles are in Ireland are way too expensive thanks to distributors taking the piss with pricing (not to mention the Government getting in on the act with VAT) The demise of decent bookshops/newsagents in most Irish towns makes even getting hold of the damn things awkward.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

My knowledge of the publication is that it has a strong pro free market bent but that's about it.

Used to get a look at it (The Economist) fairly regularly (because at the time I could get it for free and had too much time on my hands) basically consists with a fairly thorough analysis of just about every problem in the world and arrives at the following conclusions for all of them.

1) Things are pretty crap right now but sooner or later they will get better.
2) They would get better a lot quicker if everyone suddenly realised how wonderful the free market (TM) is.

Admittedly I haven't seen much of it in recent years. Do they still labour under the delusion that the main preoccupation of everyone under 25 is MTV ?

Remember a few years ago they said Ireland was the best country in the world to live in which was possibly true if one was the kind of person who subscribed to the economist.

doulikeit · 03-07-2015 07:47PM

Nuts pub ammo, fcuk I was the man heading down to the pub on friday night armed with facts and figures, they used to cheer when they seen me.Men wanted to be me women wanted to be with me, firing out one line jems at the drop of a hat"all porcupines float on water" shoot the ladies a wink and order a pint. Jaysus I was good, then came the smart phones (wnakers). Now I just sit in the corner and watch people and go for a pi$$ sometimes

ancapailldorcha · 03-07-2015 11:22PM

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It has a very boring editorial bias that panders to opinions that its readership already holds: it never challenges orthodoxy, which for an economics publication, would be depressing and bewildering. But The Economist is not an economics publication in any real academic sense. It's a news magazine with some principles of Freshman Economics thrown in.

To be fair, if it read with the focus and depth of an economics journal it'd have a much smaller target audience.

Grayson wrote: »

However I was looking through the magazine section in a shop yesterday. I was wondering who the hell buys all the linux magazines. Surely if you're using linux and want to stay updated you'll go online. Even beginners get better stuff online.

Funny you should mention those. I remember walking into the local newsagent to pay off the tab for the Racing Post (I worked in a bookies) when an old man walks in. The assistant, recognising him cheerfully hands him his reserved copy of a Linux magazine which he'd subscribed to.

Magazines - does anyone bother?

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