Every time I feel like I’m falling in love with a new magazine I hear it’s shutting down shop.  One of my absolute favorites “Domino Magazine” folded back in March of 2009, and since then I feel like I’m holding my breath for all of my other paper friends to go the way of the buffalo.  I decided I should do some scavenging to seek out some good options and see how they fare for the cost and value of the content.  The first thing that struck me at the magazine rack was the cost, my oh my, I had sticker shock.  All the choices I had made were between $7 and $11 each, I remember being upset when my monthly choice was $4.50. Eh, times change, I’m getting older blah blah blah.  The real question is, is the cost really causing everyone to jump ship or is it the lack of unique content that can now be so easily found online?  Let’s get to the bottom of it.

 I got my magazines on sale at $35.00 for the entire experiment, imagine what it would have been at full cost. EEK.

 My favorite pick – I’ve read Hi Fructose before and loved it, this edition was no different. The cost was very reasonable for the amount of up and coming art information and enough photos to hold my interest through all the articles.

My LEAST favorite pick – I love Adele, so I figured hey, it’s got a cute retro look why not? I’ll tell you why not, it’s boring, dull , lackluster drivel. It seemed like their goal was to be artistic and refined, and instead it comes across pretentious. At $11 per copy before tax, you can FORGET it.

I found this magazine interesting and educational, listing many up and coming artistic young-ins getting ready to take over the world.  Ranging from illustrators, ad designers , photographers and many other creative industry die hards.  Felt right up my alley, and included people & things I have never seen before on almost every page. WORTH it.

This movie making magazine made the least sense for me to purchase, but I was intrigued by the brown and yellow color combo on the cover.  Yes, I’ll say it… I was buying it because it LOOKED cute.  It was very informative, contained lots of technical information that flew right over my head, but also had tidbits that were nice to know.  But in the future, I’ll leave this magazine to the pros.

This men’s magazine for whatever reason was excellent,  my anticipation was that it would be full of nonsense and I was totally off.  I love Andy Samberg, so that could potentially make me biased BUT we will ignore that fact for now.  The clothing, items and articles featured in this magazine by Marc Ecko were right on track and entertaining to see.  My husband liked it as well, which is a clear indicator of rad-ness if I can be so bold.

My conclusion?  There are still many periodicals that are relevant and worth the extra expense.  I think weeding out the ones that don’t seem of value to you is key, and also getting a subscription is far more cost effective than buying one out of the blue each month.  Make smart magazine purchases and help support this failing industry from showing up in a museum as a “thing of the past” .