# Have Any Defunct magazines been Revived (Successfully)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681 "2011-03-31T20:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/21 "2011-04-01T01:59:14Z")
Famous Monsters of Filmland died in 1983, came back in 1993, died again in 2008 and came back again in 2010. Lowrider magazine was defunct for a while and came back in 1988. Ms. magazine stopped publishing in 1989 because of financial reasons and came back in 1990. After only four issues, Skateboarder magazine ceased publication in 1965. It didn’t come back until 1975 when skateboarding was big again. Gourmet magazine ended in 2009, but it’s back as an iPad app. I’d bet that the printed mag makes a comeback one day. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/22 "2011-04-01T08:32:47Z")
Boing Boing died but was revived as a vary successful blog. In the world of comics, this happens all the time. Especially with titles like Wonder Woman that have special provisos that if they don’t get published within a certain time frame the right revert back to the original owners. Outsiders for example, has had at least 3 different runs, 5 if you get particular. But in general, I think that if you wanted to really revive a long lost magazine you’d have to do it digitally… ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/23 "2011-04-01T11:13:22Z")
_Spy_ (‘The New York Monthly’) an edgy, arcane humor magazine was founded in 1986. It folded in the early 1990s, but came back a few years later as a more mainstream celebrity worship mag (similar to what it used to make fun of) before folding again. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/24 "2011-04-01T11:34:28Z")
For what it’s worth (and I’m not sure it’s worth much), I didn’t think that the problem with the later issues of _Spy_ were that it changed from making fun of celebrities to worshipping them. It seemed to me that at the end it was still making fun of celebrities, but it just wasn’t funny enough. The magazine never made much money, In fact, over its entire history, it probably lost a lot of money in total for its publishers. The original editors weren’t there that long. The publishers brought in new editors and then folded the magazine after a few years. Not long afterwards it came back with more new editors and then folded again after a short while. As much as I liked _Spy_ at its best, it was really never more than a marginal operation that could never really be worth the bother for a publisher. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/25 "2011-04-01T12:54:35Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Mentioning American Heritage is like hitting a bruise. It once was one of the great American magazines. After Forbes bought it, they slowly turned it into another shrine to the worship of capitalism and business. They still published good articles but too many had this incomprehensible slant until you remembered who owned it. (Forbes is the company run by Steve Forbes, the libertarian/nutcase/flat taxer billionaire.) > > The new magazine is hardly successful. It’s hardly a magazine. The majority of pieces are just excerpts from books. It doesn’t even seem to keep to a quarterly schedule. > > [American Heritage Invention & Technology](http://www.americanheritage.com/inventionandtechnology/) is still a fine magazine. And its archives are searchable online, making them a great resource. Actually it was under Steve Forbes it was a great magazine, showing another side that the left wing socialist extra Y chromosome cretins refuse to publish. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/26 "2011-04-01T15:09:27Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Actually it was under Steve Forbes it was a great magazine, showing another side that the left wing socialist extra Y chromosome cretins refuse to publish. **Jim’s Son** – you’re in Cafe Society, not GD or the Pit. Dial back the political rhetoric, pls. **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/27 "2011-04-01T15:10:33Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > [American Heritage Invention & Technology](http://www.americanheritage.com/inventionandtechnology/) is still a fine magazine. And its archives are searchable online, making them a great resource. One of my best friends writes a lot for them – glad to hear this praise! ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/28 "2011-04-01T15:16:06Z")
Cook’s Illustrated is a successful reboot. From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook%27s_Illustrated): > [@](#): > > Founder and editor Christopher Kimball launched Cook’s magazine in 1980 with money raised from investors. Kimball eventually sold Cook’s to Condé Nast Publications, which discontinued the magazine in 1989. Kimball later reacquired rights to the name, hired several former Cook’s staff members, and launched a rebranded Cook’s Illustrated in 1993. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/29 "2011-04-01T16:18:55Z")
I was thinking _Amazing Stories_ might be a candidate, but according to Wikipedia (if I’m reading it correctly), even though it went through several incarnations, it never actually ceased publication and then started back up again after a period of dormancy. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/30 "2011-04-01T17:17:30Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Actually it was under Steve Forbes it was a great magazine, showing another side that the left wing socialist extra Y chromosome cretins refuse to publish. I wouldn’t call it great, nor did I see any particular bias toward capitalism. It still published some first class history articles. I still have a subscription, mostly because I bought a long-term sub shortly before the hiatus. I get an issue in the mail every once in awhile, but it’s been only so-so. However the most recent issue pointed out an aspect of the Civil War that has been glossed over (yes, it really was all about slavery; the South and most history books say it was “states rights,” but clearly the only right the South claimed was the right to leave the Union). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/31 "2011-04-01T18:06:49Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I am aware of one “Liberty” magazine..it went out of business in 1950-and it was revived in 1971 (lasted for a few years). > Suppose i wanted to reviove an old mag like “Collier’s”-which hasn’t been in business for a long time.. **given that any people who remembered the old name are probably dead** -would the name still have value 9enough that I might have to pay the original owners to use it)? (bolding mine) I am not dead, and I remember _Collier’s_. I cannot say for certain, but I expect that if I **were** dead, I’d not remember it, on account of being nonexistent. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/32 "2011-04-01T18:12:23Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > _Spy_ (‘The New York Monthly’) an edgy, arcane humor magazine was founded in 1986. It folded in the early 1990s, but came back a few years later as a more mainstream celebrity worship mag (similar to what it used to make fun of) before folding again. Heh. Was it Donald Trump that _Spy_ always - always! - referred to as a “short-fingered vulgarian”? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/33 "2011-04-01T18:14:51Z")
Apparently, [someone _did_ recently buy rights to the Collier’s trademark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier%27s#JTE_Multimedia_Acquisition), and is planning on bringing it back. Good luck with that. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/34 "2011-04-01T19:50:19Z")
Fortune was one of the great magazines and stayed that way until very recently when it declined badly. It had some of the best analysis of the bank crisis. It’s strength was that it applauded business when it worked right and criticized business when it screwed up. That’s a crucial distinction. Here’s another one. Business isn’t capitalism. And libertarianism sure isn’t either. Libertarianism is to the social sciences what creationism is to the physical sciences. Rejecting libertarianism doesn’t make one a liberal any more than rejecting creationism makes one an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/35 "2011-04-03T00:02:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Heh. Was it Donald Trump that _Spy_ always - always! - referred to as a “short-fingered vulgarian”? …along with other beloved characters Abe “I’m Writing As Bad As I Can” Rosenthal and “Bosomy Dirty Book Writer” Shirley Lord. Trump was also referred to as Donald “Stinky” Trump, reportedly a play on British slang for farting. I miss that magazine. They had great reporting, their report on the Church of Scientology was one of the first to publish the Xenu story, and they named George H.W. Bush’s mistress Jennifer Fitzgerald. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/36 "2011-04-03T01:58:45Z")
I loved Spy Magazine, but I used to wonder why anyone outside New York or Los Angeles would read it, as it seemed so focused on the Hollywood and media industries in those cities. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/37 "2011-04-03T02:58:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I loved Spy Magazine, but I used to wonder why anyone outside New York or Los Angeles would read it, as it seemed so focused on the Hollywood and media industries in those cities. Well, Hollywood is easy - a huge percentage of the population loves movies. I love the New Yorker, even though I’ve not spent more than a month’s worth of time in the city in my fifty years. It’s a great magazine. _Spy_ was like _Monty Python_ in that the parody was so funny that you could be completely unaware of the person or thing being parodied and still laugh. Thank you, by the way. Responding to your post lead me to look for [this example](http://books.google.com/books?id=xaCC4gI-zJkC&lpg=PA109&dq=spy%20magazine%20was%20the%20actor%20outer%20space&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q&f=false) and I found the entire run of the magazine is available, in full readable form, [on my beloved Google Books](http://books.google.com/books/serial/ISSN:08901759?rview=0&lr&sa=N&start=60)! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/38 "2011-04-03T04:21:59Z")
I think part of the appeal was that some of the jokes were going just over most of the readers’ heads. Some of the humor was hard to get if you didn’t run around with a very exclusive crowd in New York (and maybe also in Los Angeles). What I liked about the magazine was learning to understand the more arcane references. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/39 "2011-04-03T07:01:34Z")
I’ve joked that if I ever came into money, I’d like to relaunch _American Mercury_. I may not be H.L. Mencken but I sure as hell ain’t Willis Carto either! Altho if I re-launched _The Spotlight_, then such accusations might be fair. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681/40 "2011-04-03T07:10:29Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I’ve joked that if I ever came into money, I’d like to relaunch _American Mercury_. I may not be H.L. Mencken but I sure as hell ain’t Willis Carto either! > > Altho if I re-launched _The Spotlight_, then such accusations might be fair. > **[About – The American Mercury](https://theamericanmercury.org/about/)** Oh dear. To be fair, it’s not as bad as it once was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-defunct-magazines-been-revived-successfully/576681.md?page=3)