For my own part, I have to second what’s been mentioned above, about the economy. As much as I enjoyed Craft, I couldn’t afford it. But I can’t afford much in the way of extras these days. We have a tenant who hasn’t been able to afford her rent in five months. Take $650 out of your monthly income, and magazines will quickly move into the “luxury” column, especially since Michael’s stopped letting you use those 40% off coupons on them. (Joann’s still will, if they aren’t on sale, so most of the time their magazines are on sale, at 10% off!) I know I’m not the only one feeling a serious pinch right now. I used to have a hard time leaving a store without a magazine in hand. Now I stand at the check out and tell myself, “You don’t need it. You don’t need it. You don’t need it.”

(On the tenant: My husband has been ferrying her to and from job interviews, since she lost her job. It looks like maybe there’s a job on the horizon. We just couldn’t see our way clear to evicting her.)

For my own part, I have to second what’s been mentioned above, about the economy. As much as I enjoyed Craft, I couldn’t afford it. But I can’t afford much in the way of extras these days. We have a tenant who hasn’t been able to afford her rent in five months. Take $650 out of your monthly income, and magazines will quickly move into the “luxury” column, especially since Michael’s stopped letting you use those 40% off coupons on them. (Joann’s still will, if they aren’t on sale, so most of the time their magazines are on sale, at 10% off!) I know I’m not the only one feeling a serious pinch right now. I used to have a hard time leaving a store without a magazine in hand. Now I stand at the check out and tell myself, “You don’t need it. You don’t need it. You don’t need it.”

(On the tenant: My husband has been ferrying her to and from job interviews, since she lost her job. It looks like maybe there’s a job on the horizon. We just couldn’t see our way clear to evicting her.)

I do agree with Sarah’s discussion concerning the huge plethora of titles that have come into being in the past 10 years. It has been overwhelming. And like so many parts of our culture, it is a sign of the trend these past 15 – 20 years toward massive overconsumption. And the magazines have all reflected that trend by way of creating more and more in your face space for advertising at the expense of quality content.

And now that the advertisers have recognized the internet as a rich and
fertile ground they are leaving the print media. Only the publications offering high quality content and those with the most subscribers will survive. Anitra was right! Support your favorites. Subscribe, blog, buy gift subscriptions, talk about it, share old issues…. And it wouldn’t hurt to let your favorite publications know what content you want them to include – the content that will help them keep your interest.

I do agree with Sarah’s discussion concerning the huge plethora of titles that have come into being in the past 10 years. It has been overwhelming. And like so many parts of our culture, it is a sign of the trend these past 15 – 20 years toward massive overconsumption. And the magazines have all reflected that trend by way of creating more and more in your face space for advertising at the expense of quality content.

And now that the advertisers have recognized the internet as a rich and
fertile ground they are leaving the print media. Only the publications offering high quality content and those with the most subscribers will survive. Anitra was right! Support your favorites. Subscribe, blog, buy gift subscriptions, talk about it, share old issues…. And it wouldn’t hurt to let your favorite publications know what content you want them to include – the content that will help them keep your interest.

I already miss the glossy pages and the excitement of sitting down for a moment of quiet time.

I already miss the glossy pages and the excitement of sitting down for a moment of quiet time.

Over the next years as we start to recover from this recession, I hope we Americans will become more careful with our money and more focused on quality instead of quantity. As this happens, we’ll be able to afford a few very good magazines (perhaps a lovely book-like magazine such as Craft:, and a zine from the nice lady in our town that gave us a kombucha starter that one time), and we’ll pay a reasonable price for them, and we’ll be able to afford it because we’re choosing those mags carefully and not getting everything on the shelf. If we want more, we’ll trade with friends, or buy second-hand.

I like paper magazines. I do. Yet I do feel going electronic makes sense, at least for now while this whole thing shakes out – I just hope they make it easy for subscribers to print out their zines on their home printer if they want it in paper format that badly. Or, provide a “premium” paper service and charge enough to actually pay for it… without advertisements.

Over the next years as we start to recover from this recession, I hope we Americans will become more careful with our money and more focused on quality instead of quantity. As this happens, we’ll be able to afford a few very good magazines (perhaps a lovely book-like magazine such as Craft:, and a zine from the nice lady in our town that gave us a kombucha starter that one time), and we’ll pay a reasonable price for them, and we’ll be able to afford it because we’re choosing those mags carefully and not getting everything on the shelf. If we want more, we’ll trade with friends, or buy second-hand.

I like paper magazines. I do. Yet I do feel going electronic makes sense, at least for now while this whole thing shakes out – I just hope they make it easy for subscribers to print out their zines on their home printer if they want it in paper format that badly. Or, provide a “premium” paper service and charge enough to actually pay for it… without advertisements.

so it sucks that so many that i loved (three which you have pictured) have gone kaplunkt!

i but mags because i love the pictures. i love taking them into the second office (the bath) and soaking them in.

i love referring back to something, clipping and tagging pages, sometimes rippin them out and putting them on my dream/inspiration boards.

so i buy them on the stands sometimes, subscribe, tell people about different articles etc.

so it sucks that so many that i loved (three which you have pictured) have gone kaplunkt!

i but mags because i love the pictures. i love taking them into the second office (the bath) and soaking them in.

i love referring back to something, clipping and tagging pages, sometimes rippin them out and putting them on my dream/inspiration boards.

so i buy them on the stands sometimes, subscribe, tell people about different articles etc.