Magazines are History

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Magazines

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uploaded by Barbara Mathieson

While I have always been a loyal subscriber to newspapers and magazines, my lifestyle has been changing for the past two years.

Last year, I dropped my daily local newspaper and Wall Street Journal subscriptions. Although I had read newspapers my entire adult life, I was challenged by a reader of my blog, The Earth Is Not a Trash Can, to unsubscribe to lessen the amount of paper I recycled each week. I survived and adapted by reading the local newspaper on line each day. My trips to the recycling drop-off center were cut in half. This became an added benefit during the year marked by rising fuel prices and gas shortages.

This year, in this economic downturn that seems to get worse each week, I am giving up subscribing to magazines, another life-long habit of mine. Plus for the past 11 years, I  worked for two magazine publishers, both of whom laid me off work due to poor ad sales. Hey, I was not even responsible for selling ads.

Is it my way of protesting my lay offs to stop re-subscribing to magazines, although I never subscribed to any of the magazines produced where I worked? No, although I am motivated to be more environmentally friendly, it is actually financial. Since I am unemployed, it is an easy, painless way to cut costs.

Next week, I will receive my last Newsweek. Although I have been tempted to renew in the past few weeks with reduced cost subscriptions, I am not re-subscribing with Newsweek because I do not think that they will be around this time next year. The death of the news weekly has been rumored for a while by industry wags.

Other magazines have been sending me low cost offers, too. Often my mailbox has been filled with these. But even $1 per issue for a monthly seems a high price to pay in this economy.

My withdrawal from printed magazines will not be abrupt. Before the latest layoff, I had renewed The Atlantic, and I noticed today that my subscription to More is good for another year. I think I got a buy one year, get one year free from that publisher.