archives

[via Daring Fireball, an absolutely fantastic site]

Along with the change in size, Rolling Stone will switch to heavier, glossy paper and sleeker page designs, and it will be glued rather than stapled — “perfect bound” instead of “saddle stitched,” in magazine lingo — giving it a flat spine rather than a tapered edge. In all, the revisions make for a more professional, more grown-up look.

Grown-up? Please. That's just marketing BS.

Rolling Stone is profitable, according to Wenner, a privately held company — outside analysts agree — but like the industry as a whole, it is going through a rough period. The magazine had 486 ad pages in the first half of 2008, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, down 33 percent from the same period in 2005.

I remember when my much beloved Emigré went from their own distinctive size to a 'standard size'... it never seemed the same ever again. While there was likely no correlation to the size change (they also reduced the price and starting taking ads), I'd still like to think so, and it ceased publication in 2001.

(As a long-time subscriber, I had owned about 20 issues (the 4AD issue was awesome!), mostly the middle ones, until one of our floods in Chicago pulped them. The insurance company couldn't quite get the 'truly irreplaceable' part of that collection)

They have looked much younger than 16.