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“Threatened by newspapers, and now the web, they must once again refashion themselves to survive, argues Kathryn Hughes,” in The Guardian.

And we intend to do just that. However, we are only too aware of the problems with funding a print magazine. The product not only has to be sold to the reader, but to advertisers aswell. As a result, Hughes says:

“women’s magazines proliferate, clone and collapse according to a postively Darwinian model of the market.”

Just aswell we’re producing a brand new alternative magazine then – there’ll be no cloning here!  On a more positive note, Hughes suggests women’s magazines could do well in the recession since there were, “more launches during the difficult period of 1870-1900 than at any other time.”

The return of literature?

A blogger on The Guardian’s website Nancy Groves, thinks “Literature should return to women’s magazines.” Groves feels glossy mags are saturated with “pap-filled pages” and would like to see more fiction and book reviews.

Interestingly, Groves points out that the best performing women’s monthly magazine (between January and June 2008 according to Contract Publishing UK based on ABC results) – Psychologies provides at least a double-paged spread on book reviews in each issue.

At the other end of the scale, More! was the poorest performing title. Are women finally getting bored of reading trashy celebrity gossip? It seems so..

“Perhaps celebrating authors for their achievements could prove the bridge from our current obsession with talentless fame to a future where writers and writing are back on the magazine agenda,” says Groves.

Now there’s a nice thought

Sources:

The Guardian –  ‘Zeal and softness’

The Guardian – ‘Literature should return to women’s magazines’