A weird thing has been happening at the newsagency. I noticed a few weeks back.
It’s a time warp. A revolving door. Flashback city.
Before the world changed in 2020, magazines in Australia were already on the slide. My local large newsagency had reduced its magazine display from three aisle-long shelves down to two, then down to one. Shiny trinkets and gift bags and birthday cards took over the vacated space.
I’m not trying to single out suburban newsagencies. Their city counterparts were, if anything, faring worse. The biggest ones closed up shop altogether. I couldn’t actually point you in the direction of the best newsagency in the city anymore. The best selection is probably in a supermarket.
I think it’s fair to say the pandemic accelerated the pre-existing downward slide. In mid-2020, the new owners of former Bauer Media magazines announced a sweeping cull of eight titles in its collection, namely Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, InStyle, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Health, NW, and OK!.
It was a shock to see not only so many publications folding all at once, but the huge international fashion names among them. I’d thought those titles were, if not bulletproof, safer than pretty much everyone else.
On the other hand, they might’ve been sudden and startling in magnitude, but these closures were, in a sense, nothing new. Magazines have always come and gone.
Back to the weird thing happening in newsagencies. Now, magazines are not just disappearing, they’re reappearing – usually coming from a different publisher and often years after they’ve closed.
Among those 2020 former-Bauer closures, Harper’s Bazaar returned in 2021, ELLE has resurfaced four years later in 2024, and Women’s Health and Men’s Health are back as digital-only for now.
Apart from dodging back and forth between being open and closed, many titles have been experimenting with altering how often they’re published in print or switching to digital. I’m not even sure what’s happening with Girlfriend magazine – for a while it was delivering quarterly print issues plus other issues as digital-only. It came back for a special nostalgic print edition featuring Taylor Swift, and currently seems to still be ticking along in digital form. It’s a head-scratcher.
The return of previously-dead titles is a nice, hopeful sign, but also quite odd. Especially as someone who’s written for these publications for years.
I have bios containing the publications I’ve written articles for in my LinkedIn profile, on my website, and on my social media pages. I try to keep these current. Listing too many cancelled magazines isn’t really putting my best professional foot forward.
With all this chopping and changing of which titles are currently open or closed, it’s kinda a tough task. I finally get my words printed in a publication for the first time and they close a month or two later. Do I put it in my portfolio or skip it? Maybe I won’t have long to wait before they open once more?
I’ve written for ELLE and Women’s Health from the formerly-Bauer list of 2020 closures. They closed, now they’re back. I also wrote for Good Health before it was shut down along with them. It’s not yet returned, but who knows – maybe soon?
The other day, I spotted Women’s Fitness mag, which I wrote for in 2018 shortly before it closed, back on the shelves.
I’m swirling in confusion. When will this madness end? I wouldn’t say I’m pulling my hair out, but it makes things somewhat tricky. As a reader, I’m thrilled to see old favourites making a comeback, as a writer it’s doing my head in.
So, having said all this, my questions to you are:
Which closed magazine(s) would you most love to see back on the shelves?
Which was the one that most shocked you when it folded?
What type of magazines do you think work best in digital form rather than print?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. : )
Giveaway
Last week’s giveaway, Clare Fletcher’s Love Match, was won by Seetha Dodd.
Giveaways will be back next week.
My answers:
1. The closed magazines I'd most like to see come back would be Dolly (it was such a good read as a teen, especially the sex ed advice from Dolly Doctor), CLEO, Cosmo, Madison (similar to ELLE and Marie Claire), and a retro pin-up mag called 'Vintage Life' (see a run-down on it here: http://pinupchillimarie.weebly.com/chillis-blog/vintage-life-magazine-chillis-review)
2. I was probably most shocked by Australian ELLE closing in 2020.
3. I'm not really a digital mag reader (firmly into print for both books and mags, but I'm happy for other people to read via audio books or digitally -- to each their own). The magazine I make an exception for is UK 'Writing' magazine. If I wait for the print edition to arrive from overseas, the writing competitions it lists will have already closed by the time it gets here. So, specialist print mags with many overseas readers might do well in digital.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. : )