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‘Zines

One of my favorite things about going home to Florida is being welcomed by a tower of magazines. My mom saves my favorites and then I tend to sit on the couch in the Ladies Lounge and just binge-read. I’m talking about hours of flipping through the glossies, paper cuts, a stack of earmarked and torn out pages, and inspiration like crazy.
The funny thing though is that the last time I went home, I didn’t even touch a magazine. I did get a lot of work done, but I also relaxed quite a bit. Grabbing a magazine didn’t even cross my mind.
Ever since I moved to NYC, I’ve hardly been reading magazines. On one hand, I just never really worked on getting any sort of subscriptions delivered to my new apartment. (In college I only got Newsweek…. but yeah, that obviously doesn’t happen anymore.) On the other hand, I just tend to get my information from other places instantly.

Magazines used to be a huge source of inspiration for me. I love reading, but being able to devote two minutes instead of two weeks to a story really appealed to me. I love the periodic aspect of it… I used to look forward to the latest and greatest issue of American Girl Magazine when I was younger, and then it was Teen Vogue, and then it was Real Simple.

Whether I was looking for interesting stories about inspiring people, or tips for how to organize my life better, or the trends that I should be trying (or avoiding).

But that magic is sort of gone. (Although, I will admit that I’m a sucker for a good cover at the checkout in the grocery store.)

Blogging, daily online “magazines,” Twitter, Instagram… Pinterest. These things have completely replaced that need for a monthly compilation of what we needed to know about whom and a breakdown of what we should be doing. Now, if you need to know (as an example) how to text a cute boy, Google pretty much can take care of that. Or, if you want to know what a certain celebrity is up to, checking Twitter will fill you right in. Need to know how to pull off overalls (they’re coming back, brace yourself), try a fashion-forward blog. Organizational tips, dinner recipes, workout advice, design inspiration? Pinterest is there for you.

Having instant (and extensive) access to what we want all the time is awesome… but overwhelming. At the same time, I wish that I could enjoy a monthly magazine, but the content always seems outdated and yesterday’s news. I’d love to know where you draw inspiration. How do you filter through everything to find what you need or want? Where do you discover new things?

Do you even subscribe to magazines anymore? If so, which ones? What websites do you go to for inspiration?


xoxo

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28 Comments

Meghan

I don't subscribe, but I love fashion magazines! I love Vogue, Glamour, Lucky, Marie Claire. Not so much gossip, though. I love editorial design and I am so inspired by fashion ads! I also love The Glitter Guide, Pinterest, the Everygirl, Sarah Lederman Design, anything pretty and girly!

Meghan
meghanbanke.com

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Allison

I'm definitely a sucker for a good cover when on line at CVS. Other than the sporadic "lady mag" that I pick up, I get New York Magazine delivered. It's great and I love it. My favorite column, if you can call it that, is for sure the Approval Matrix.

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Nicole Brittany

I love magazines! Vogue, Glamour, Lucky, InStyle, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Glamour UK, InStyle UK, Nylon, Company Magazine…right now, I'm really loving British fashion magazines. They tend to be more up to date on the latest trends even if they're a couple of months old…I live in NC so the trends don't get here too fast! 🙂

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Pacific Northwest Prep

I'm dying to get a subscription to Vanity Fair and WWD, but right now I love the NY Times. Maybe this will be the motivation I need to order my subscriptions!

Cheers,
PNW Prep

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Heather Mill

I found some great deals last year at DiscountMags.com for something like 4 magazines for a year for $20 and have been receiving a TON of subscriptions… almost too many to keep up! The good thing is that I've really narrowed down which are my favorites, and as these subscriptions run out, I know which ones I need to continue. However, I ALWAYS pick up Real Simple and HGTV magazine as soon as I see them at Barnes and Noble or the grocery store. It feels like such a treat and I know I will read these cover to cover.

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Ellie

My senior year of high school I was doing a year long thesis on fashion design and marketing so I has subscriptions to Vogue, W, Allure, Glamour, and InStyle.

I'm still a magazine junkie and actually purposely avoid opening links that my favorite magazines pin or tweet just so I can read the article or see the pictures when I read the issue. About a year ago when I got my iPad, I discovered the Next Issue app. For $10 a month I have access to 80+ monthly magazines and I LOVE IT!!! I recommend the free trial 🙂

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Taylor

I used to love magazines as a kid! Definitely more so than I do now… I loved the American Girl one, too! And also Teen People and Cosmo Girl…. Now that I'm older I don't read magazines as much (unless I'm going on a plane… Something about being on a plane makes me want like 20 magazines to read!!)

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Kelly

I still like magazines like Real Simple or HGTV's magazine, but anything related to fashion or beauty I find is redundant to what I read on blogs or do blogging myself.

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JenniP

I'd recommend Next Issue as well – I have the one that includes weeklies, so I get People and US Weekly in addition to Real Simple, Vogue, W, Glamour, Cosmo, etc, etc for $15/ month. Love it!!!!

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Kate Mitchell

I love magazines, and subscribe to probably too many. But in recent months, I've read them just to be disappointed. Maybe I'm approaching the same roadblock you are!

Kate
katethealmostgreat.blogspot.com

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Elizabeth

I feel the same way about magazines. I use to read them constantly, but now I get most of my info from Blogs and Twitter. I still subscribe to a bunch (Vanity Fair, Vogue, Town & Country, etc.)but I rarely have time to sit down and go through them.

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Ludachka

I subscribe to a couple like Glamour, Elle, etc., and used to love tearing out and scrap-booking clothes or styles that I really liked or thought were interesting. It was like a pre-Pinterest/Polyvore thing hehe 😀

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Sarah Morris

So funny; my mom does the same thing for me! The two of us share our subscriptions to Real Simple (*my favorite) InStyle, People Style Watch, Everyday Rachael Ray, and Glamour (which is more for me LOL). For Christmas my brother got me a two year subscription to Bon Appetit; I'm an avid foodie so its perfect for me. The magazines are perfect for treadmill/elliptical reading and come in extra handy during the summer months when we are at our shore house in Avalon and need some casual pool/beach reads.

Besides the print editions, a great thing about all of the magazine subscriptions that I have is that I can download the publications' app on my iPad, access my account, and download the editions. So instead of having to rip out pages from my printed editions when I go shopping, be it to anywhere from Sephora to Whole Foods, I can just pull out my iPad and look there.

As much as digital has risen and expanded publication reach – print is not dead! =D

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Briana Luca

I'm a digital feen; I love all things digital and I definitely agree that I've found inspiration more online than in a monthly magazine. There is still part of me that craves the newest issue of Glamour or Cosmo. Maybe it's the journalist in me but I live for the first week of every month where a fresh batch of magazines hits the newsstands. I don't subscribe to anything besides Entertainment Weekly but I always buy the new issues of my favorite fashion and lifestyle magazines.

Briana xoxo
RoyallyPink.blogspot.com

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thenerdykatie

I seriously scaled back my magazine subscriptions. I think at one point I was getting around 10, now I just Texas Monthly and Town & Country.

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Mari-Vickyy

I definitely love getting mags at the supermarket or the pharmacy, but dont have any subscriptions. I do subscribe though to the Glitter Guide's newsletter and read Matchbook Mag & Rue Mag online. They're wonderful!

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Julia

If you're looking for something more academic, the New Yorker is really good – it's weekly and reports on the big issues in an analytical way, so it never seems like old news. Plus, their articles cover quirky subjects, interviews, fiction, and reviews of New York restaurants and shows. Talk of the Town is my favorite column in the magazine…and the cartoons.

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allison

Thanks to expiring air miles, I get more magazines than I can reasonably keep up with. Two new favorites are New York Magazine and the Atlantic. I tend not to buy a lot of magazines these days, but I have always loved the feeling of leaving a bookstore with a paperback or two and a big stack of magazines (and a small piece of chocolate).

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Sara Stone

I LOVE my mags but I have special places that I put them so they will actually get read. Sorry for the TMI but most go right to the bathroom, but in all honest other than carrides or sleeping I'm not usually sitting still long enough to read other than in the loo! lol But I save my fav, US Weekly for my elliptical workouts. Just me and my hollywood gossip getting my sweat on!

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Megan Bos

I love matchbook mag for inspiration! They have a lot of really great articles. I also have a huge guilty pleasure for Wired mag it is full of tons of really cool tech and news updates that interesting and equally quirky.

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Katie McC

I agree! By the time I even start reading the piles of magazines that have been sitting in my living room, it's been like 2 months past the "reading" date. By that time, all of the information is super outdated. Like it's all already happened in present time and I am just reading it or experencing it for the first time in the magazine, even though I've seen it been done 10000x's before on Pinterest or Instagram the previous month. Bloggers seems to be way ahead of the game, and they will post things months before magazines even have the trendy items in print.

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SHF

I subscribe to Vogue – it's the only magazine I make an effort to read in print each month. I also love reading Matchbook and having it accessible online just makes it so much more accessible!

SHF
thechroniclesofs.blogspot.com

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Genevieve Ang

I still subscribe to print magazines because there's nothing like reading a well-written article on an actual page (Vanity Fair), seeing a picture laid out in print (Vogue) or actually being able to read an infographic in its entirety (TIME). I love all 3 I mentioned but I also love lesser-known magazines like Kinfolk, Lula, and Frankie. I think all 3 have such a great point of view and inspiring content!

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Julia D.

I still love "Vanity Fair," "The Economist," and "TIME" not for the instant information they deliver, but for how they synthesize it in essay and article form in ways I might not have thought of from being continuously updated about a situation via Twitter. I think you're right about it being outdated as a method of getting instantly obtainable information, but I think it is still useful in terms of making sense of it all. Although, I'm biased since I'm talking mostly about political and editorial magazines, which are a totally different animal.

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