The End of Print...?

I am of course referring to the wall of magazines that confronts you at any newsagents not the ubiquitous patterns covering our sartorial favourites.

It has been repeated many times over recent years that the days of magazines are coming to a slow, painful death. It seems reasonable enough, we can now easily download magazine apps or catch-up with international news online which is even more up-to-date than print could ever be. Ipads and other handheld snazzy electronics are becoming more popular by the day and it becomes less easy to justify spending £4 on just one monthly glossy. Especially for people like myself who MUST have at least 6! That adds up.

I'm personally an avid internet addict and researcher, always looking for the newest and most exciting gossip and news. Be it from daily mail online or vogue. It is undeniably addictive especially when doing actual university work requires the use of my laptop or the internet. Combing through the web becomes a handy 5 minute break from the chore of work. And looking around the library, I’m definitely not the only one…

So surely it’s onwards and upwards for internet and out the door for the classic magazine?

I say no, well I hope no anyway. I don’t know about you but sometimes I need a creative break during the day and after staring at the computer screen for many an hour I just can’t bear it. And so a fashion magazine tends to be where I get this release. I like to think of it as containing lots of short stories with all those articles, especially the September issues, and often take me a good week to fully finish the thing. And with the option of subsciptions which can lower the price per issue by over 50%, maybe the future’s not so bleak?

I say this as technology continues to take over our lives but surely there will be a backlash to some extent? We are not machines and not supposed to spent hours a day staring at an electronic screen.

Who wouldn't want copies of these bad boys?

Another special feature of magazines is their materiality, the fact you can hold them, bend over corners of pages and have a causal flick through. As great as technology is it can’t quite do that. And of course, this quality is shared with books which fashion has often turned to as a way of expressing itself. The release of both Alexa Chung's 'IT' and The Man Repeller's Leandra Medine 'Seeking Love: Finding Overalls' in the past few weeks has had me rushing to amazon to buy the real deals. No Kindle version here.

At least I can rip it out and stick it on my wall?

So, what do you tune in to magazines for? If you tune in at all…

xxx