By Claire Booth
Entertainment
Monthly? My latest issue came in the mail this past week, and I am not happy. A
letter from the new editor announced that the magazine would become a monthly
publication.
He went on
to talk about a lot of crap like digital covers, audio and TV, and A-list
events. None of which I’m interested in. Those are all fine, and I’m sure there
are people who do want those things, but from the Internet reaction, a hell of
a lot of them still want something in their mailbox every week.
 |
| EW on my coffee table, not on a screen. |
That
includes me. I’ve read the magazine for the past 25 years. I stare at screens all
day for work, and afterward holding something printed—turning pages of words on
actual paper—is a respite. And a magazine that specializes in irreverence and
snark? That’s my kind of reading. Its quality has waxed and waned since it
started in 1990, sure, but it’s always been a general audience pop-culture chronicle
that used its power for good. It has championed LGBTQ and minority artists. It has
made space for the little guys—the independent movie, the under-the-radar music
group, the overlooked TV show. It includes book coverage!
Maybe that’s
why this ticks me off so much. I realize that the switch to monthly is all
about cutting costs to survive in a tough marketplace (despite the BS official
line that it’s nothing but a desire to bring subscribers more of everything
they love). I worry that the decrease in frequency will mean a decrease in
quality.
Don’t get me
wrong. I like monthlies. I get Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Smithsonian
Magazine. But those folks know that they’re monthly. The stories that they
produce are long form, in-depth, fully reported. Will EW up its game to match
that? Will it keep the snark and add the serious?
Will it
check on the #MeToo pledge of celebrities to help, financially and otherwise,
women in poorer professions?
Will it give
me a story on the campaign for the Screen Actors Guild presidency and why I, as
an entertainment consumer, should care?
Will it
finally be able to break the streaming services' secrecy and tell me how many
people are really watching Stranger
Things?
If Entertainment
"Weekly" wants to keep me, this is what it needs to do.
1 comment:
As an original subscriber I am done with it. I tolerated the 22 issues a year, but 12 is too few. It doesn't do the in-depth pieces that VF does. Or the Atlantic which I also get. Too bad.
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