New Media
I have become inundated with magazines. At present, I have subscriptions to more than fifteen periodicals. I pay for about a third. A couple came as gifts, but the rest are a result of free offers I've received online. Of those, the majority have come from freebizmag.com.
As its name indicates, freebizmag provides free subscriptions to business magazines. And indeed, some of the subscriptions I've received from freebizmag have been business publications: Entrepreneur, Direct (the magazine of direct marketing) and Potentials (the magazine of corporate swag). But then there are the subscriptions to Interview, Wine Enthusiast and Better Homes and Gardens, not to mention the ones I passed up, such as Biography and Outdoor Photographer.
One reason I've received this plethora of offers is that I haven't been completely straightforward about what I do for a living. This is not completely my fault. When you sign up at freebizmag.com, you are presented with a simple questionnaire of drop down menus. The two basic questions are "Select Your Industry" and "Select Your Job Function / Title." Easy enough. Listed industries run the gamut from Agricultural to Retail. As a writer, my two best choices are Business Service / Financial or Media / Marketing / Entertainment, both of which offer Advertising / Marketing as a secondary choice. Other possibilities are Communication / Utility, Computers / Internet or Education. But let's keep it simple for now, and choose Marketing. When you go to Job Function, you are presented with everything from General Management and Legal to Health / Medical / Fire / Safety. So if you're a fire inspector at an advertising agency, I suppose they've got you covered. Let us follow the path we are on, though, and choose Advertising / Marketing / Sales. Once again, another drop down menu appears, offering the three choices of Advertising, Marketing or Sales. The menus which follow Advertising and Marketing are similar, but Advertising leans a bit more to the creative side, offering Designer, Graphic Artist, and finally, Copy Chief / Copywriter.
Unfortunately, if you follow that path, you receive this message: "Based on the business profile you've provided, we are unable to locate any applicable free, business magazine(s)." So one feels compelled to fudge a little bit. And because freebizmag doesn't offer any path that leads to Writer or Content Provider, one doesn't feel so bad. In general, I've stayed within fields that are related to my work, not choosing Automotive / Aviation / Transportation or Medical / Dental / Science as an Industry, for example. One problem is that no matter what you select as your Industry, your choices of Job Function / Title remain the same. Eventually I hit on a combination that worked, and freebizmag offered me a free business magazine (I think EWeek, not to be confused with E Weekly, was the first). Since then, they've continued to send me offers for more. And since I never recall how I answered their questions last time, I work in an ever-changing series of fields.
In addition to sending me magazines I want, freebizmag has introduced me to others with which I was not familiar. Thus, it is through freebizmag that I discovered The Week, Stuff and Radar.
The Week is the USA Today of news magazines. Their motto is "All you need to know about everything that matters." All you need to know to sound informed at the water cooler might be more appropriate. The magazine is a news digest. Its writers and editors scan newspapers and magazines from around the country and, to a lesser degree, across the globe, and cull the results into short, snappy newsbites. It is the CliffsNotes for the news of the world.
By any definition of the word, The Week is slight. At a scant 40 pages, it is about half the size of Time. Its articles are correspondingly brief. The magazine does manage to spare about three-quarters of a page for one or two major stories per week, such as the search for Saddam or the recall election in California. In contrast, stories on North Korea and Liberia rate about a third of a page. News of the world is covered in three pages - one for the Americas, one for Europe and one for Africa, Asia and Australia - and maps account for much of the space. Stories on such issues as the 9/11 report and gay marriage are covered in a half page dossier called "Talking Points." Indeed, Talking Points would be a fine name for the entire magazine, as it rarely covers much more.
The writing style is a cross between journalism and plagiarism, a rich vein recently mined by Jayson Blair and his ilk. Articles reflect what has been written in such journals as The New York Times and The Nation, but rarely more than one line per paper. Sources are cited, which helps the magazine maintain some level of credibility, but direct quotes are never more than a few words. The bulk of the articles are paraphrase, with information attributed to various journals. Thus, a line which starts with an idea from The Wall Street Journal may end with a conclusion from the San Jose Mercury News. This works most successfully the main stories, which cover What Happened, What the Editorials Said, What the Columnists Said and What Next. In shorter stories, the style can be somewhat psychotic, as if written by Sybil Dorsett in full flower.
The Week manages to find room in its pages for sections on Arts, Business and Leisure. The mag covers the arts with its Review of Reviews, which would be better named Revue of Reviews, since the reviews aren't critiqued so much as trotted out together on the same stage. Where else can you find five movie reviews on one page, composed completely of comments from other reviewers, and authored, such as they are, by someone who may not have seen the films in question? The other sections offer similarly in-depth coverage.
Still, if one hour per week is all you can devote to current events, The Week is the magazine for you.
The Week comes to us courtesy of Dennis Publications, which also publishes Stuff, and may explain why a subscription to the former led to one for the latter. Stuff would be better named Stuffed Bikini. This is a magazine which runs such banners on its cover as "Around the World in 80 Babes" and "Now With 98% Fewer Clothes!" I didn't know exactly what I was getting into when I ordered the magazine, but I'm not completely disappointed.
Stuff aims to be a younger, straighter Details. Each issue is composed of big pictures and short articles. In publishing lingo, the short pieces that open a magazine are referred to as the front of the book. Stuff is all the front of the book. 300 words is a long article. The magazine is packed full of stuff - cars, fashion, electronics - but mostly boobs. Features follow celebs and sports figures, leaning heavily on chesty actressmodels. For example, the current issue runs pieces on Daisy Fuentes, Univision star Sissi and Marieh Delfino of Jeepers Creepers 2, along with a special section on Latina lovelies. All of their outfits combined would make a nice shawl for Oprah.
Stuff tries to be clever, but with lines like "Four whores and seven beers ago," it at best succeeds in being smarmy. Nothing in the magazine would seem out of place on The Man Show. This is the sort of stuff that gives straight men a bad name. Even the ads are creepy, such as the one for fcuk fragrance, whose brands are called fcuk him and fcuk her. It's difficult to imagine anyone over the age of 21 buying this rag, when they could pick up Penthouse or Juggs for the same price. But Stuff claims a paid circulation of 1.2 million, so someone must be buying it.
For me, the most interesting thing about Stuff is the number of women on its staff. The Senior Editor is Dawn Yanek and the Managing Editor is Patty Gloeckner. Three out of four photo editors are women, which may be how they get all those chicks out of their clothes. I don't know if they are pandering to their audience or if it is all a colossal joke. I can't recommend a subscription, but the magazine does offer a fascinating look into a culture with which I am totally unfamiliar: children with no taste.
Everything that Stuff would like to be, Radar is. Smart and funny, with a distinct point of view. Sure, its Summer issue features a skinsome photo of Paris and Nicky Hilton, but it serves as an illustration for article on third-tier stars, B-List Nation. Despite its masthead which proclaims Pop > Politics > Scandal > Style, Radar has something to say and cares who knows it.
Radar has just recently debuted. Its premiere issue came out in April. I never received that issue, but I do have the second one. The next issue comes out in September. Quarterly publication seems odd for a magazine that is so celebrity driven, but I'd prefer that they take their time and get it right than rush to press and go to hell.
Radar's point of view is illustrated by their article on B-List stars, which they define as "Ambitious extroverts who in a less shameful epoch would live out their lives in obscurity." Stuff, on the other hand, celebrates those very stars. (Marieh Delfino anyone?) The story not only examines the B-List phenomenon, but charts stars by categories such as "A but B at heart" (Justin Timberlake, Broadway), "A about to be B" (Angelina Jolie, Botox), "B on their way to A" (John C. Reilly, Chest Hair) and "Will never be A" (Dennis Hastert, Lords of the Dance). Radar opens an article on Bill Clinton by calling him "just another lonely middle-aged millionaire with an absentee wife and a bad commute." Stuff wouldn't 1) know the word "absentee," 2) think to contrast "just another" with "millionaire" and 3) use so many words in a row. A story about Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild series, focuses on him and his shady business practices, rather than the wild girls. It cleanses the palate after a diet of Stuff.
If Stuff is the straight Details, Radar may be the new Spy. I hate to even suggest it, recognizing what a big pair of loafers those are to fill. But it has the sense and it has the sensibility. It wisely keeps the front of the book at the front of the book. An article on fashion explores minimum wage chic, with Dunkin Donuts and Mister Softee uniforms reimagined by the like of Prada, Donna Karan and Gucci, and UPS brown dubbed the new black. Their "Ask America" poll finds Carrot Top's hair 8% more appealing than Scott Peterson's, Justin Guarini 12% gayer than Ricky Martin, and J. Lo's ego twice as big as her ass. Most telling, the mag offers a dissection of Donald Trump's enormous hair, with advice from celebrity croppers.
When I started getting my free magazines, I was interested in two things. First, I was looking for tips to help grow my business. Thus, Entrepreneur and Direct. Second, I was looking for new markets. Radar comes closest to filling that niche, though with competition from Camille Paglia and Jake Tapper, it's gonna be a hard sell. Now that I'm on the magazine whirlwind, though, I simply enjoy having new media coming into my house regularly. And much like the best things in life, they're free.
******************************
Quote of the Week
"He never seizes to amaze me."
From an Amazon.com user review.
Is that anything like She Stoops to Conquer?
As its name indicates, freebizmag provides free subscriptions to business magazines. And indeed, some of the subscriptions I've received from freebizmag have been business publications: Entrepreneur, Direct (the magazine of direct marketing) and Potentials (the magazine of corporate swag). But then there are the subscriptions to Interview, Wine Enthusiast and Better Homes and Gardens, not to mention the ones I passed up, such as Biography and Outdoor Photographer.
One reason I've received this plethora of offers is that I haven't been completely straightforward about what I do for a living. This is not completely my fault. When you sign up at freebizmag.com, you are presented with a simple questionnaire of drop down menus. The two basic questions are "Select Your Industry" and "Select Your Job Function / Title." Easy enough. Listed industries run the gamut from Agricultural to Retail. As a writer, my two best choices are Business Service / Financial or Media / Marketing / Entertainment, both of which offer Advertising / Marketing as a secondary choice. Other possibilities are Communication / Utility, Computers / Internet or Education. But let's keep it simple for now, and choose Marketing. When you go to Job Function, you are presented with everything from General Management and Legal to Health / Medical / Fire / Safety. So if you're a fire inspector at an advertising agency, I suppose they've got you covered. Let us follow the path we are on, though, and choose Advertising / Marketing / Sales. Once again, another drop down menu appears, offering the three choices of Advertising, Marketing or Sales. The menus which follow Advertising and Marketing are similar, but Advertising leans a bit more to the creative side, offering Designer, Graphic Artist, and finally, Copy Chief / Copywriter.
Unfortunately, if you follow that path, you receive this message: "Based on the business profile you've provided, we are unable to locate any applicable free, business magazine(s)." So one feels compelled to fudge a little bit. And because freebizmag doesn't offer any path that leads to Writer or Content Provider, one doesn't feel so bad. In general, I've stayed within fields that are related to my work, not choosing Automotive / Aviation / Transportation or Medical / Dental / Science as an Industry, for example. One problem is that no matter what you select as your Industry, your choices of Job Function / Title remain the same. Eventually I hit on a combination that worked, and freebizmag offered me a free business magazine (I think EWeek, not to be confused with E Weekly, was the first). Since then, they've continued to send me offers for more. And since I never recall how I answered their questions last time, I work in an ever-changing series of fields.
In addition to sending me magazines I want, freebizmag has introduced me to others with which I was not familiar. Thus, it is through freebizmag that I discovered The Week, Stuff and Radar.
The Week is the USA Today of news magazines. Their motto is "All you need to know about everything that matters." All you need to know to sound informed at the water cooler might be more appropriate. The magazine is a news digest. Its writers and editors scan newspapers and magazines from around the country and, to a lesser degree, across the globe, and cull the results into short, snappy newsbites. It is the CliffsNotes for the news of the world.
By any definition of the word, The Week is slight. At a scant 40 pages, it is about half the size of Time. Its articles are correspondingly brief. The magazine does manage to spare about three-quarters of a page for one or two major stories per week, such as the search for Saddam or the recall election in California. In contrast, stories on North Korea and Liberia rate about a third of a page. News of the world is covered in three pages - one for the Americas, one for Europe and one for Africa, Asia and Australia - and maps account for much of the space. Stories on such issues as the 9/11 report and gay marriage are covered in a half page dossier called "Talking Points." Indeed, Talking Points would be a fine name for the entire magazine, as it rarely covers much more.
The writing style is a cross between journalism and plagiarism, a rich vein recently mined by Jayson Blair and his ilk. Articles reflect what has been written in such journals as The New York Times and The Nation, but rarely more than one line per paper. Sources are cited, which helps the magazine maintain some level of credibility, but direct quotes are never more than a few words. The bulk of the articles are paraphrase, with information attributed to various journals. Thus, a line which starts with an idea from The Wall Street Journal may end with a conclusion from the San Jose Mercury News. This works most successfully the main stories, which cover What Happened, What the Editorials Said, What the Columnists Said and What Next. In shorter stories, the style can be somewhat psychotic, as if written by Sybil Dorsett in full flower.
The Week manages to find room in its pages for sections on Arts, Business and Leisure. The mag covers the arts with its Review of Reviews, which would be better named Revue of Reviews, since the reviews aren't critiqued so much as trotted out together on the same stage. Where else can you find five movie reviews on one page, composed completely of comments from other reviewers, and authored, such as they are, by someone who may not have seen the films in question? The other sections offer similarly in-depth coverage.
Still, if one hour per week is all you can devote to current events, The Week is the magazine for you.
The Week comes to us courtesy of Dennis Publications, which also publishes Stuff, and may explain why a subscription to the former led to one for the latter. Stuff would be better named Stuffed Bikini. This is a magazine which runs such banners on its cover as "Around the World in 80 Babes" and "Now With 98% Fewer Clothes!" I didn't know exactly what I was getting into when I ordered the magazine, but I'm not completely disappointed.
Stuff aims to be a younger, straighter Details. Each issue is composed of big pictures and short articles. In publishing lingo, the short pieces that open a magazine are referred to as the front of the book. Stuff is all the front of the book. 300 words is a long article. The magazine is packed full of stuff - cars, fashion, electronics - but mostly boobs. Features follow celebs and sports figures, leaning heavily on chesty actressmodels. For example, the current issue runs pieces on Daisy Fuentes, Univision star Sissi and Marieh Delfino of Jeepers Creepers 2, along with a special section on Latina lovelies. All of their outfits combined would make a nice shawl for Oprah.
Stuff tries to be clever, but with lines like "Four whores and seven beers ago," it at best succeeds in being smarmy. Nothing in the magazine would seem out of place on The Man Show. This is the sort of stuff that gives straight men a bad name. Even the ads are creepy, such as the one for fcuk fragrance, whose brands are called fcuk him and fcuk her. It's difficult to imagine anyone over the age of 21 buying this rag, when they could pick up Penthouse or Juggs for the same price. But Stuff claims a paid circulation of 1.2 million, so someone must be buying it.
For me, the most interesting thing about Stuff is the number of women on its staff. The Senior Editor is Dawn Yanek and the Managing Editor is Patty Gloeckner. Three out of four photo editors are women, which may be how they get all those chicks out of their clothes. I don't know if they are pandering to their audience or if it is all a colossal joke. I can't recommend a subscription, but the magazine does offer a fascinating look into a culture with which I am totally unfamiliar: children with no taste.
Everything that Stuff would like to be, Radar is. Smart and funny, with a distinct point of view. Sure, its Summer issue features a skinsome photo of Paris and Nicky Hilton, but it serves as an illustration for article on third-tier stars, B-List Nation. Despite its masthead which proclaims Pop > Politics > Scandal > Style, Radar has something to say and cares who knows it.
Radar has just recently debuted. Its premiere issue came out in April. I never received that issue, but I do have the second one. The next issue comes out in September. Quarterly publication seems odd for a magazine that is so celebrity driven, but I'd prefer that they take their time and get it right than rush to press and go to hell.
Radar's point of view is illustrated by their article on B-List stars, which they define as "Ambitious extroverts who in a less shameful epoch would live out their lives in obscurity." Stuff, on the other hand, celebrates those very stars. (Marieh Delfino anyone?) The story not only examines the B-List phenomenon, but charts stars by categories such as "A but B at heart" (Justin Timberlake, Broadway), "A about to be B" (Angelina Jolie, Botox), "B on their way to A" (John C. Reilly, Chest Hair) and "Will never be A" (Dennis Hastert, Lords of the Dance). Radar opens an article on Bill Clinton by calling him "just another lonely middle-aged millionaire with an absentee wife and a bad commute." Stuff wouldn't 1) know the word "absentee," 2) think to contrast "just another" with "millionaire" and 3) use so many words in a row. A story about Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild series, focuses on him and his shady business practices, rather than the wild girls. It cleanses the palate after a diet of Stuff.
If Stuff is the straight Details, Radar may be the new Spy. I hate to even suggest it, recognizing what a big pair of loafers those are to fill. But it has the sense and it has the sensibility. It wisely keeps the front of the book at the front of the book. An article on fashion explores minimum wage chic, with Dunkin Donuts and Mister Softee uniforms reimagined by the like of Prada, Donna Karan and Gucci, and UPS brown dubbed the new black. Their "Ask America" poll finds Carrot Top's hair 8% more appealing than Scott Peterson's, Justin Guarini 12% gayer than Ricky Martin, and J. Lo's ego twice as big as her ass. Most telling, the mag offers a dissection of Donald Trump's enormous hair, with advice from celebrity croppers.
When I started getting my free magazines, I was interested in two things. First, I was looking for tips to help grow my business. Thus, Entrepreneur and Direct. Second, I was looking for new markets. Radar comes closest to filling that niche, though with competition from Camille Paglia and Jake Tapper, it's gonna be a hard sell. Now that I'm on the magazine whirlwind, though, I simply enjoy having new media coming into my house regularly. And much like the best things in life, they're free.
******************************
Quote of the Week
"He never seizes to amaze me."
From an Amazon.com user review.
Is that anything like She Stoops to Conquer?
posted by John Bliss at
11:28 AM
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