If you started your own magazine....

What would it be like?
Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly?
Something different or same old same old?
Would the internet pay a key role or a throwback to the old days?


As for myself, I'd like to start a new one and call it "The Unfortunate 500". Copyright. A parody of sorts to it's opposite - "The Fortune 500".

The idea would be to focus on small businesses and those struggling for their claim to fame .

I’d like to see another magazine for the Heavy Metal scene. Metal Maniacs was good, but it went down hill with trendy shit in the endKant

I wouldn't want to start a magazine, or any sort of print publication, these days. Profits are low and rapidly declining. There's no future in it. Online is the only way to go.

I'm not sure what I'd start if I did. It seems like there already is a magazine for just about everything.

"horses in galoshes" a specialty fetish mag.

SimonDoom said:

I wouldn't want to start a magazine, or any sort of print publication, these days. Profits are low and rapidly declining. There's no future in it. Online is the only way to go.

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Print certainly wouldn't be a for-profit enterprise even as a check-out glossy or tabloid. It's a vanity project for a dork with too much money. Or a cash-and-sweat sink for naive young fools. Or a primitive trashy 'zine created because voices in the head insist. Or something ultra-specialized with a built-in audience, like audiobooks for the exiled Tuvan throat-singer community.

I'm not sure what I'd start if I did. It seems like there already is a magazine for just about everything.

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Including for the exiled Tuvan throat-singer community. They probably already have their pr0n'zines.
_____

Words and images, and sounds and data, transfer easily electronically, not needing paper or other solid media except for texture and dimensionality. Mail'zine culture used the postal service to circulate handmade screeds, mini-scrapbooks really, among networks of fanatics.

A 'zine containing physical artifacts that can't transfer online but can be shipped -- THAT might gain a following. An artifact-of-the-week 'zine. Or product placement -- for musicians, a guitar-string- or sax-reed-of-the week 'zine, reeds and strings fronted by makers anxious for exposure.

Okay, there we have it: STRINGS WEEKLY, with sub-editions for classical, folk, and electric guitars, mandos, 'ukes, fiddles, basses, sitars, and kotos.

Besides the usual technical and aesthetic features and DIY projects, and the String-Of-The-Week, it has string pr0n, string fetishes (what's your favorite alloy? which animal has the best gut?), StrinGal and StrinGuy pinups, and beer-, mead-, and wine-making recipes because why not?

I remember a time when magazines were something one reads. Today magazines are something only reserved for guns.

Non-porn nudes, both male and female. It's damned near impossible to filter out dick pix and split beaver to find artistic work online.

TarnishedPenny said:

Non-porn nudes, both male and female. It's damned near impossible to filter out dick pix and split beaver to find artistic work online.

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Right on

Captainnumnuts said:

I remember a time when magazines were something one reads. Today magazines are something only reserved for guns.

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I blame smart phones. The moment we could browse the internet while on the toilet, magazines were doomed.

There is no way in God's green earth I would start a magazine. In a previous job, part of my role was producing magazine and I have an unfortunately vivid memory of what's involved in moving it from concept to reality. Sure, there's nothing like that moment the first physical copy lands on your desk, but the joy and good feeling disappears the moment you find the first typo you missed!

Hmmmmm...

The Tribadism Daily.

I can see it now...

BiscuitHammer said:

The Tribadism Daily.

I can see it now...

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The first advert would be for KY or some similar lubricant.

I'd love to see a new 'humour' magazine; rather like Punch was.

Oh, yes! I do miss Punch.

Handley_Page said:

The first advert would be for KY or some similar lubricant.

I'd love to see a new 'humour' magazine; rather like Punch was.

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Hell yes to Punch!

rae121452 said:

"horses in galoshes" a speciality fetish mag.

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I would read this magazine.

JasonClearwater said:

I would read this magazine.

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Jesse looked up, mournfully. "Does this mean I have to cancel my subscription to My Little Pony?"

Beware, my child, for the Cloppers walk among us, and are not easily identified...

electricblue66 said:

Jesse looked up, mournfully. "Does this mean I have to cancel my subscription to My Little Pony?"

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Jesse, the good news is, it's MLP... WITH GALOSHES!

Well, assuming I'll ignore the slow death of print media, then my dream mag would be either in the vein of the venerable Dragon RPG periodical (before Wizards of the Coast made it a pure rules supplement) or about action figures.

But in today's market, I'd rather shoot myself than start a new magazine.

I miss the old Dragon. Besides content tailored to D&D players or GMs, it had general articles on pretty much anything an RPG fan could find interesting, along with the obligatory book and game reviews. Without it, I would never have picked up Cyberpunk 2020 or GURPS or Call of Cthulhu or so many others. Sure, it was TSR's main vehicle to sell you stuff, but they were smart about it.

Blind_Justice said:

Well, assuming I'll ignore the slow death of print media, then my dream mag would be either in the vein of the venerable Dragon RPG periodical (before Wizards of the Coast made it a pure rules supplement) or about action figures

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One of my fave parts of reading Dragon when I was a little kid was the module supplements, but also the comics, like Phineus Fingers. When WotC killed the flavour of Dragon, I languished until I found White Dwarf in the 80's.

A revival of classic Dragon would be welcome.

BiscuitHammer said:

One of my fave parts of reading Dragon when I was a little kid was the module supplements, but also the comics, like Phineus Fingers. When WotC killed the flavour of Dragon, I languished until I found White Dwarf in the 80's.

A revival of classic Dragon would be welcome.

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I was referring to the time D&D 3e rolled around and they made it D&D-only. I've read Dragon (AND White Dwarf) voraciously between 1993 and '96 or so.

Blind_Justice said:

I was referring to the time D&D 3e rolled around and they made it D&D-only. I've read Dragon (AND White Dwarf) voraciously between 1993 and '96 or so.

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Lol, got it. I started with it in the mid-late 70's, when I was a scrawny little kid who got into D&D...