SPEAKING OF NOT ending well, in Popula this week Matt Haber reminded us of the print magazines we lost this year. As a former writer for and editor of a website that used to treat magazines shuttering, or being rumored to be on the verge of shuttering, as a big deal, it was somewhat distressing to realize I had no idea most of these had actually ceased publication. I mean, I forgot Entertainment Weekly stopped running this year, and that used to be one of my main magazines.
It did strike me, in reading lots of things about how Theatrical Movies Are Dead, that so few people have drawn the connection between the decline of print and the supposed end of the non-franchise blockbuster. But, like, without Allure to remind us which movie stars have movies opening soon, and without Entertainment Weekly to tell us when they come out, and without the newspaper to tell us which theater they are playing at, how are people supposed to decide to see The Fabelmans?
You can also probably draw a more tenuous line between the decline of general audience mass print media, the rise of niche targeted online outlets, and the growing derangement of the sort of men that make up the bulk of agencies like the Secret Service. If they had been reading Parade instead of Truth Social, would they have lied about Major?
This item originally appeared in the POPULA PLANET newsletter. Add your email here to receive it in your electronic mail box! Thank you for visiting POPULA!
HELP US AND RING IN THE NEW YEAR! – Brick House’s 2023 Bodega Calendars are here, and they are gorgeous! Contribute the admittedly whopping sum of $75 (we really need money) to the Brick House, money that directly funds our operations and pays our writers, editors and artists, and receive your amazing Calendar as a token of our gratitude. This year’s calendar art is by Popula creative director Joe MacLeod!! Learn what day it is in a riotously flowering state of happiness. It has Birthstones of the Month and stuff on there!!!
