I like magazines, so I keep subscribing to keep them going that last extra bit until they die.
My wife and I subscribe to most of the science and archaeology magazines that haven’t descended into pictures and captions (Discover, BBC Science). Others were offered for virtually nothing, like Entertainment Weekly, which is now a monthly and mostly useless. Bloomberg Businessweek came that way and has more of interest. Harper’s too. No news magazines, since none can say anything on the news that isn’t old news. We get bunches of magazines from the library, too. I just prefer reading print for long-form works. Computers are mostly uncomfortable for anything longer than a post.
Funny Times is a fun oddity, a newsprint magazine that reprints cartoons and humorous articles. It’s wildly liberal and still has the whiff of hippie sensibility it’s had for decades. Find it. Support it. Enjoy it.
I’m 67 and used to buy magazines a lot as my magazine tastes are usually about cars. virtually every bit of information is now available on line so about the only time I buy a magazine is if I have a flight somewhere and the internet connection on the plane isn’t free. (yes, I’m still scottish) :rolleyes:
I’m 68. I subscribe to Scientific American and National Geographic, which I’ve done for around 30-40 years. I find I don’t have time to keep up reading them. I used to catch up on long-distance flights but now with seat back entertainment I often find it more painless to just veg out. it I used to subscribe to Natural History, but let it lapse. It’s been years since I bought a magazine off a rack.
When I was a kid I used to get Mad, and later National Lampoon. I used to read Time and Newsweek, and later The Economist.
Never had a subscription to a magazine, but during the 70’s and 80’s bought every edition of two ‘alternative lifestyle’ mags published here in Australia.
Have never bought a magazine since app 1989, I’m 59 now.
You should have tried it in the '80s, when every issue was 3 times bigger than the ones now. I used to read every word, then work and kids made me get behind - a year behind. Now I just read the interesting stuff.
I did cancel for a while when that woman was editor.
I love magazines and currently have about 20 subscriptions. However, I don’t pay for them myself. I get them free through e-mail offers and by taking short surveys. I buy individual issues every now and then too.
I get several with memberships to things; AARP and HOG for example. Other than that I am subscribed to Living Lutheran, Smoke and Fire News (re-enacting), and Pennsylvania Magazine. In addition there are a couple shooting ones I will sometimes grab at a news-stand if they look interesting.
Go back 10 years and I was subscribed to maybe 12-15 magazines and monthly/weekly delivered-by-mail newspapers and tended to hit the stands more often. I cut back mostly because too many became all ads (like most of the internet has become) and some just priced themselves beyond my value for them.
Situational purchases? Not really. I always have a book handy or at least a couple to-be-reads in the car so the boredom factor of travel or hospitals is covered in advance.
I have a subscription to The Economist. You don’t have to be an economist to understand most of it, and I am definitely not an economist. But I feel like economics is a very good lens for consuming current events, and I feel like The Economist is the closest thing out there to a nonbiased news outlet. There’s also a ton of subtle humor and warmth woven through it if you’re alert. The covers alone are fantastic.
As far as the last magazine I bought off the rack… I think it was Harper’s, about 3 years ago. I actually had a subscription and used to enjoy it, but not any more. As a hysterical effete liberal, it’s too hysterically liberal and effete even for me.
I’ve had a Private Eye sub for a few decades now (gifted, mostly. A fave birthday present!). They do put some stuff online, but it’s pretty perfunctory, so the fortnightly delivery is it.
I have subscribed to Scientific American for about 55 years; it has gone sadly downhill.
To American Scientist for 18 years
To New Yorker since I got married, 55 years
To NY Review of Books for at least 50 years
I used to subscribe to Astounding/Analog but let it lapse maybe 20 years ago when I realized I wasn’t reading them (still read a lot of sci-fi books though)
Have subscribed on and off to Consumer Reports
I subscribed to Byte, to Dr. Dobbs, to PC Mag, to Creative Computing, Science 80, all of whom have gone belly up
I cannot recall the last time I bought a magazine over a counter. I’m 82.
Until a couple of years ago, I had a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. I kinda dropped off from it after I was laid off at Blockbuster.
My pastor now brings me new issues of EW and Rolling Stone, which his late son had subscribed to. (His son lived with him until he died.) I don’t really read Rolling Stone very much, but I do still enjoy EW.
I am 44 years old. I am currently only subscribed to TV Guide; I must say I really miss its digest format with localized listings.
Most of my favorite magazines have stopped publishing print editions or stopped publishing altogether:
PC World
PC Magazine
Computer Shopper
Wizard: The Guide to Comics
Toyfare
Backwoods Home
George
LIFE
Omni
Weekly World News (OK technically not a magazine but I sure miss its wackiness)
Other magazines I have subscribed to in the past:
Popular Mechanics, Popular Science(for 25+ years before i stopped around 2005), *TIME *, Newsweek, US News & World Report, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home, Entertainment Weekly, Consumer Reports, Yankee Magazine, *New Hampshire * .
Also when I was kid my parents got us: Ranger Rick, Highlights. As a kid, I also used to read Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler, *Inside Wrestling *,MAD, and Cracked regularly but I never had a subscription to any of them.
I’ll have to look this up. Here in Boston we had the Boston Comic News (AKA Editorial Humor) for several years until it died shortly after 2000. I’ve missed it ever since. Among other things, it’s the only venue I’d ever seen that ran Craig Swanson’s Perspicuity, a nerdy single-panel comic that came with a lengthy commentary. I bought several T-shirts that had his cartoons on it.
I definitely did as a pre-teen/teenager in the 90s. Examples: Simpsons Illustrated, MAD, at one point I had a subscription for Popular Mechanics…Even a few years ago, I was still buying one magazine called History Revue, which I would read while riding public transportation. I even once sent in a query about an obscure historical point, which they attempted to answer. I stopped buying it when I got a smartphone and got to spend time on the Internet instead. Since then, I have bought said magazine maybe once or twice. From time to time, I am still tempted to buy a magazine, but honestly, now I don’t have enough time to read them.