Thursday, January 29, 2009

Wow.

Conde Nast magazines are feeling the pinch, it would seem.

I have here previously bemoaned the sad political flogfest Vanity Fair has become under the heavy hand of Graydon Carter. In old days, when the new VF arrived, I'd tear into it and spend an afternoon with an iced tea reading my way through. However, after 15+ years as a subscriber, I recognized I could no longer support GC's poltical proselytizing, despite the occasional levity of Christopher Hitchens and a few non-politically oriented delights.

I've dropped nearly all my subscriptions and once read, most magazines find their way to the trash in my house these days. Of course, Vanity Fair was the first one I actively chose not to renew.

It's interesting to me, then, to see Vanity Fair's ad revenues have declined by 15.5% last year. This can not bode well. Then again, maybe their advertisers have grown tired of the DNC mouthpiece, or perhaps their customers have let them know they are tired of it. In any case, I'm well out of it.

8 comments:

DaveG said...

I'm the same way. I feel that my business has been actively pushed away by Hollywood, TV, and magazines. Hell, I can't even read the comics anymore without having my political beliefs ridiculed and demonized.

Those industries have apparently decided that roughly half of the country is comprised of people that they don't need. I will greatly enjoy the schadenfreude that I will experience as they all eventually encounter a fiscal bankruptcy to match their moral and ethical bankruptcy.

They have spent years saying "to hell with you," to which I reply, "right back at you."

TOTWTYTR said...

For some reason every magazine, no matter what the putative subject matter, felt entitled to opine on things political during the Bush Administration.

I stopped reading Automobile because one of it's columnists just had to put a Bush insult in every column. Every other magazine I see also seems to have to insert some comment because "everyone knows" that George Bush is the worst President ever.

I think that you, DaveG, and I are typical readers who subscribe to non political magazines to read non political articles. As more and more magazines jumped on the anti Bush band wagon, more and more people stopped reading them.

It's only going to get worse and many publications won't survive because of it.

Unknown said...

I only subscribe to EW nowadays, just to keep up with movie stuff. Did you send VF a letter or e-mail explaining why you dropped them? It might be good for them to hear it.

NotClauswitz said...

I look at VF just to laugh at the ridiculous people, goofy makeup, and their hilarious clothes - and that they take themselves so seriously.

Buck said...

I'm thinking VF's "core" subscriber base is concentrated on the eastern seaboard, with Ground Zero (NO pun) in the tonier parts of Manhattan. Delusional, innit? But that's in keeping with their politics...

Robert Langham said...

I've had to give up National Geographic for their anti-gun (anti-human rights) and global warming nonsense and also Smithsonian. I hate it, but, as Jesus would say: Fuck you.

The funny thing is that they will KEEP sending them for a few year even when you quit subscribing.

FHB said...

What Buck said. I learned a long time ago, maybe in grad school, that I wasn't going to hear my beliefs given an honest treatmnet in those mags.

Sorry we can't come this weekend. It would have rocked.

Hunter said...

VF published a letter to the editor from me back in Feb '04. I've enjoyed the ads more than anything else.
But this last issue, the massive repeat litany of any and all perceived wrongs of the Bush administration...? Straight to the recycle bin. Didn't even look for the Hitchens column.

Hunter
Ketchikan, AK