Maggerzines

[perplexingprocrastinator]

I subscribe to Tribune (worthy but quite dull really socialist mag)

Me too & that perfectly describes it. The associated podcasts are a bit more tolerable than the magazine. Like "Politics Theory Other" if you're into that kind of thing. Christ, now I've bored myself as well

[Norton Canes]

Had a subscription for WSC for years. Though, I say had a subscription - a mate had an article published in it, got a free sub for a year, transferred it to my name in a gesture of goodwill and the subs team must have forgotten about it, because a year of free issues became at least five or six years. Sadly, they finally realised a couple of years ago and my extended freebie was curtailed.

[imitationleather]

I subscribed to Tribune and while it looked very lovely on my coffee table I don't think I ever found a single article I was even tempted to start reading.

[Snrub]

There was a magical time in history, when video game magazines were just about the best thing in the world. They might still be great, not actually bought a new one (with the exception of the odd Retro Gamer special), in probably over a decade.

Yeah, N64 Magazine especially had a massive influence on me, and made me want to go into writing in some form or another. Was pleased when I did get my name in print once reviewing a video game - the Xbox version of a Rugby League Live 2 in Forty-20 magazine (a sort of RL version of WSC. Highly recommended if you are into the sport and IMO the only British publication covering the sport worth persisting with).

Agree with the price of mags - I do think I should support more but don't have much spare reading time. Picked up issue 600 of Doctor Who Magazine and it was £11! Was a special issue, but I think even in a usual month it's 8 quid a go. I mean they do put a fair amount of effort in to be fair.

The only subscription I have on the go at the moment is Good Food magazine, as now I'm officially a middle class dad. Someone got it for me for my birthday and to be fair some of the recipes are absolutely banging.

[wrec]

One good thing about a Fortean Times subscription is not having to spend 30 minutes searching for it in WH Smiths. Each branch seems to have a different place for it: near the comics, with the film magazines, next to things like The Economist. Even found it tucked behind the Womens Weeklys in one shop.

They must have got it confused with Fallopian Times.

(yeah, that's me moaning once more about how abjectly shit The AV Club is these days)

Used to have slow work mornings on Saturdays during which I'd read My Year of Flops and whatnot - good times.

I subscribe to The Wire, very occasionally pick up Mojo.
That's grim about Sight and Sound, it surely isn't intended to survive for long after zombie NME staff are running it.

[Pink Gregory]

I subscribed to Tribune and while it looked very lovely on my coffee table I don't think I ever found a single article I was even tempted to start reading.

they need to stop padding out their articles with data and poll results, I would say if you're reading Tribune you probably already know, it's not a newspaper.

New editorship recently though

[Ray Travez]

I buy back-copies of The Idler, though it went weirdly commercial a few years back, too many advertorials and aspirational articles. I preferred when it was more anarchic.

[holyzombiejesus]

I buy back-copies of The Idler, though it went weirdly commercial a few years back, too many advertorials and aspirational articles. I preferred when it was more anarchic.

Yeah, I subscribed back when it was A4 format and used to really look forward to it. I liked the philosophy behind it but when you look at it through the lens of it being produced by over privileged cunts, it loses a lot of its appeal.

[madhair60]

i didn't know The Idles had their own magazine!

[Gurke and Hare]

I subscribe to Viz and Bird Watching magazines, and am thinking of subscribing to Retro Gamer too. I miss the days when there were newsagents with miles of magazine shelves, even WH Smith has cut the space given to them back loads now and there are plenty of places where they've closed the shop. I've no idea where you'd go to buy an even slightly off-kilter magazine in Manchester now, most paper shops just have TV listings magazines and the likes of Take a Shit.

[Gurke and Hare]

I have recently started a trial for History Today magazine

See David Baddiel? That's you, that is.

[Pranet]

Yeah, I subscribed back when it was A4 format and used to really look forward to it. I liked the philosophy behind it but when you look at it through the lens of it being produced by over privileged cunts, it loses a lot of its appeal.

I also used to buy it when it was an actual magazine. I only got a couple of the book shaped version, largely because there was no where around here to buy it. But yeah when I realised how posh and annoying the main guy was it put me off it a bit. I picked up a copy last year, dunno looked a bit thin.

[Pranet]

I subscribe to Viz and Bird Watching magazines, and am thinking of subscribing to Retro Gamer too. I miss the days when there were newsagents with miles of magazine shelves, even WH Smith has cut the space given to them back loads now and there are plenty of places where they've closed the shop. I've no idea where you'd go to buy an even slightly off-kilter magazine in Manchester now, most paper shops just have TV listings magazines and the likes of Take a Shit.

Was in Bath the other day and noticed a shop that just sells magazines. It was Sunday and it was shut so I don't know if it sells actual magazines or just those expensive paper back large format books that call themselves magazines these days. Eg I don't know if you could pick up the latest Railway Modeler in there. If I am in Bath on a weekday I might pop in to check.

I do miss proper newsagents.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I also subbed to Tribune but ended up failing to read it after lockdown happened.

It's online and free rather than a 'proper' mag but I've recently gotten into The Reprobate.

[jamiefairlie]

Was in Bath the other day and noticed a shop that just sells magazines. It was Sunday and it was shut so I don't know if it sells actual magazines or just those expensive paper back large format books that call themselves magazines these days. Eg I don't know if you could pick up the latest Railway Modeler in there. If I am in Bath on a weekday I might pop in to check.

I do miss proper newsagents.

Me too. Could spend hours in Smiths and Menzies.

[FeederFan500]

It was only about 10 years ago that Newsagents still had fairly decent racks of magazines, while now it's TV listings and the odd very popular genre title in a tiny portion of the shop.

Yet there are new titles that pop up. I noticed a fairly new Pitch magazine which is a longer form sports mag (albeit with no writer I'd heard of), and in Smiths there was a relatively nicely presented Official Champions League magazine with actual articles not just pictures of Mbappe and Haaland - but who will be spending £10 on that sanitised thing? I noticed too that the cricket longform quarterly The Nightwatchman was sounding pretty desperate for more paying readers last issue, citing print costs.

I much prefer the photography/imagery in print though compared to online, it's the main thing that justifies me buying the physical copy and doesn't feel like a rip off compared to the length of a book. If there are too many listicles though that goodwill is lost pretty quickly.

[13 schoolyards]

In Australia we just went through a period where even big name magazines were getting the chop, only now it seems new (smaller) companies have grabbed the license for various overseas titles (ie Rolling Stone,) and are giving it another shot.

Which seems insane to me because there just aren't newsagents here any more - I live in a city of maybe 250,000 people and I'm pretty sure there are two newsagents left. And by "newsagents" I mean "lotto shops with an actual magazine section, not just a rack by the front counter".

It doesn't matter if you're putting out the best magazine ever at an insanely cheap price if there's nowhere people can buy the bloody thing - the local version of NME just folded after two and a half years of me never seeing a copy for sale anywhere

[mrfridge]

Little White Lies - to read about films I'll never get round to watching. Smells amazing.

Icon - to look at pictures of pretentious overpriced design and sometimes really interesting architecture bumf.

Grand Designs - I don't know why I still subscribe to this. A bit of house porn every now and again is nice but it's essentially exactly the same every month.

Disco Pogo - A continuation of Jockey Slut which I used to read back in the day. Has a nice balance of nostalgia and more recent features on dance / electronica artists and DJs

Eye - A consistently solid graphic design mag. Expensive but always full of interesting articles and visuals.

Looks like a lot but most of the above only come out every 3-6 months.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Can't tell you how liberating it is to hear from fellow Tribune sufferers. Every three months this exquisitely tooled turd squeezes itself through my letterbox to bob around the house from room to room, unread and unflushable. Eventually I end up taking it into work thinking, I'll get bored enough to read it there, surely? But no, it sits in the bag, accusing and denouncing when I reach in to get my packed lunch so I end up taking it home and, fuck me, there's another one waiting on the welcome mat. And so it begins again.

I mean, it's nicely designed but so was the SS uniform. And the spine's a bit too keen, if you know what I mean. Not very giving. It doesn't stay open. No that opening the things on the fucking cards. Unbelievably boring. There was an article about Brendan Behan in it recently and I thought, this is it, I'm in. But no, they even managed to bollocks that up. I've been a subscriber since about 2018, thirty fucking bar a year on this shite. What a cunt I've been.

I also get the LRB which is the eaxact opposite in terms of boredom/design. Many's the time I've found myself devouring a 20,000 word article on a book about Peruvian glove manufacturers that I'm never going to read with a beatific smile on my stupid boat. And it stays open on the table. That's how you do it.