The Obsolescence of Magazines
Recently a young, but soon to be important, curator declared that he didn’t like magazines. He backed the statement explaining that an article in a magazine is not long enough to engage in a profound discourse nor relaxingly short. He prefers reading books when it comes to knowledge and 50-word blog posts when it comes to news and trends. If he was the one predicting trends involving printed ephemera, the statement would clearly be that magazines are long dead. At least the printed ones.
On the contrary, a recent article published on The Guardian’s website states differently. The article reports about a survey whose final results indubitably show that people still prefer reading printed magazines than their digital versions. Should we be surprised?
Even if the young curator won’t maybe ever waste his time reading one of them, some excellent magazines have been coming about lately. One of the newest on the list, currently presenting its second issue, is Verities – a magazine about art and culture. The bi-annual magazine has, since its foundation, stated it was a publication “of thought, observation and reflection giving equal focus to visual arts and literature”. The second issue of the magazine, entitled “The Muse Issue”, happily mixes literature, art, critique and theory in chapters titled “Observations”, “Inquiry” or “Studies”.
Verities isn’t the only one treating their readers with esteem and intelligence. The trend among independent publishers who started as ‘producing lovely magazines’ is gradually shifting towards ‘making culture’. Even though the trend part may still be included in the package, the shift in content is highly appreciated. Hopefully not only by magazine geeks.
