Another one bites the dust... JANE folds

In the magazine business you have to expect failure, but this one I'm sad about. I believe the number is like 1 in 10 magazines launched will last more than a year, if it even makes it to the launch. Pulling from my old Publishing notes, the fabulous Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, made a good point that this number is so drastic because no one really knows what they're doing. People with passionate pastimes (ah, alliteration...once it starts you really can't stop) put up the capital and realize after the fact having at least some background in journalism (say, you've read newsstand titles before and know readers will buy '10 Sexy moves' and ignore 'Top Needlepoint designs for Spring') can make a huge difference.

Even successful magazines eventually become stale, and when Premiere closed in April, I moved on. I'll admit, it hurt to see my absolute favorite title go online right after I bought a two year subscription, but I finally decided to fall back on the cliche: all good things must come to an end. You just need to take comfort in the fact you were alive and able to experience greatness at the time of its inception.

I mean, look at some of the magazines that are still alive:

COLORS makes strong statements about the state of the world, but its reputation was begun with the 13 issues Tibor Kalman produced in the beginning. It hasn't really been the same since. (One note: I found this great book that printed a compilation of those 13 issues, fantastic read)

Rolling Stone hasn't made a statement since they moved to a color press. They are trying to pretend that their uppity leftist beliefs about the government combined with celebrity profiles and paid-for CD reviews is in no way hypocritical.

Esquire is up there with the New Yorker as one of those 'great' magazines no one seems to read. Over the past year their art director, David Curcurito, has really been blowing me away with his anti-sell-line sell lines, but the real question will be if this blatant disregard for cover rules pays off on the newsstand, because you better believe if it doesn't work, all that creativity will be gone in seconds.

Closing down magazines is always sad, and most of the time hard to explain. When ElleGirl closed last year, it was pretty much the same story as JANE: the magazines with positive future numbers couldn't fight the slumping advertising sales and the large media conglomerate wanted to jump ship.

After the news, [Jane Editor Brandon] Holley spent the afternoon making calls on behalf of her staff, and was said to be stunned by the closure, believing that the magazine was in positive turnaround and that six more months would have made the difference. Source

But why are these closing hurting me the most? True, Premiere and ElleGirl are online now, but that creativity that comes from a really crazy spread design isn't there with it. One of my first blog posts (on the old blog) had a brief mention of JANE's design. While it wasn't that innovative, it was surprising, especially for a teen magazine. Sure, it was silly at times, but last year they started the short-lived trend of tight face shots on the cover as opposed to the 2/3rds rule implemented everywhere else.

Everyone says magazines are moving online, and I'm sure one day the technology will be there to have great design on the Web, complete with virtual pages to turn and everything, but right now it's horrible. Sure I'm biased, I am a designer and online magazines hurt my chances at potential jobs, but there has to be other people out there besides me who love flipping through the pages of a magazine while lounging on the couch after work, or on a weekend. Sometime I'll buy magazines I have zero interest in reading just because I like the way they laid a spread out. Magazine design is a complex balance between the story and photos, but also includes color, font and grid choices. A magazine online is almost as bad design-wise as reading the Wall Street Journal: lots of text, no color variations and small, boxed photos.

And to add insult to injury, Ibought the last issue of JANE and absolutely love it. Would totally get a subscription, if it wasn't FOLDING. I'm pretty sure I'm just jinxed. God help the company I work for now.