If you sit quietly in a chair for long enough your mind starts to wander and you begin to find your internal dialogue asking questions. Case in point; who buys magazines anymore? when popping into the newsagent to buy a Lottery ticket, a bottle of water or some chewing gum we bear witness to a wall of magazines, magazine's that seem to cover every area of interest. The top shelf is a mainstay, but don't most people access their naked people via the internet? The TV guides are many and varied but does the ritual of biro and reading glasses circling the upcoming programmes still exist?
Lifestyle magazines, those tomes dedicated to narcissism shine brightly on the shelves enticing with a hollow promise of a glimpse into the lives of the rich, the famous and the ubiquitous. Fashion flashes it's flashy facade from the covers of the high profile titles that speak of glamour and envy, a chance to look at what £2000 buys you at the Gucci flag store.
The kids, what about the kids? Here you go, magazine's a-plenty with cheap gifts stuck on the covers and trading cards to entice. The eye level placement reaches out to young fingers and many a parent has bought one of this light pamphlets fior the sake of keeping the peace.
Gender specific magazines, Cars and Motorbikes, Fishing, Golf, Cinema, Puzzles all are catered for all are welcome.
There is still, thankfully a place for Private Eye, Time and Newsweek along with other mags that require a degree of concentration
I long ago gave up buying the likes of Empire, Arena, The Face , GQ and the like, religiously. It felt like some sort of style statement to have a pile of magazines on display, but in reality they were just gathering dust. I would sit and read these magazines in my quiet chair and find articles of interest and items to dream about owning, but the reality was that the publishers knew exactly what they were doing, I was the audience for these particular magazines that catered to my interests and fed my aspiration.
Now that everything is available on the internet I wonder if there is a future fr magazines but maybe like other things, physical media will make a omeback and those shelves will be empty, not because of lack of interest but because of demand.
No comments:
Post a Comment
having said that;