# It's the end of an era: Family Circle ending after 87 years **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998 "2019-10-19T14:35:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/1 "2019-10-19T14:35:31Z")
It’s the end of an era: Family Circle ending after 87 years. I also didn’t even know Self ended in 2017. I saw the last issue of Teen a few years ago. And that McCall’s ended in 2014 also. There was a recent announcement Marie Claire UK just sold its last printed issue and will be going online only. Noticed some grocery stores have eliminated their magazine rack. My Half Price Books no longer carry magazines. I just realized I hadn’t seen a cover of Rolling Stone in last couple of years except just at Barnes and Noble. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/2 "2019-10-19T14:48:53Z")
Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. Seems like that comic has been around for 187 years. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/3 "2019-10-19T14:51:03Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. \ Not me. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/4 "2019-10-19T14:56:57Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. > > Seems like that comic has been around for 187 years. :smack: Dammit, I fell for it too! ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/5 "2019-10-19T14:59:27Z")
My question is why is any physical copy of a magazine sold anymore? Paying seven bucks for a lots-of-white-space-but-little-text item that can easily be read online doesn’t make much sense. Interestingly, my local grocery store has shoved its magazines into an inaccessable corner. The prize slots in the checkout lines are all special issues/coloring books/crosswords. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/6 "2019-10-19T17:48:49Z")
Somehow, I have a subscription to “PopSci.” Maybe it was a present, I dunno. But, setting aside the asinine name (what was wrong with “Popular Science, hmmm?), the magazine is almost unreadable. The articles are all don’t in “infographic” style, with tiny text that flows randomly around photos and illustrations. Maybe this is what passes for modern layout, but for me, it just makes the magazine worthless. Seems to me that trying to capture the youth market is just alienating the subscribers that currently have. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/7 "2019-10-19T17:57:27Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. > > Seems like that comic has been around for 187 years. :smack: Same way I read it. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/8 "2019-10-19T19:03:29Z")
OP: I don’t understand why you call it the end of an era. While the magazine sold a lot of copies it just didn’t have any impact: you never saw other media citing it for breaking an important story or having an important interview. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/9 "2019-10-19T19:28:38Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Not me. Lol! ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/10 "2019-10-19T19:45:13Z")
Family Circus is still around??? The magazine was part of the “seven sisters” publications with Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and the 4 other women’s magazines. I’m chuckling cuz I was at the dentist office the other day seeing an issue of People Weekly and all the celeb paparazzi pics I saw in it I already saw online. I was actually getting subscriptions thru mileage points since it was use the points or lose it and I hadn’t flown in a awhile. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/11 "2019-10-19T19:55:05Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Not me. Ida Know. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/12 "2019-10-19T20:37:32Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. > > Seems like that comic has been around for 187 years. :smack: Family Circus I started in 1960, and it was originally called Family Circle. I don’t knoe if they got a C&D letter. It was always printed inside a circle so the ame made some sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/13 "2019-10-19T21:06:20Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > Family Circus is still around??? The magazine was part of the “seven sisters” publications with Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and the 4 other women’s magazines. The others were _Better Homes and Gardens_, _Ladies’ Home Journal_, _McCall’s_, and _Woman’s Day_. Only “BH&G”, “GH”, and “WD” are still printed. _Redbook_ survives in digital form. _McCall’s_ folded after an ill-fated attempt to rebrand itself as _Rosie_ in collaboration with Rosie O’Donnell. [More here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(magazines)) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/14 "2019-10-19T22:05:53Z")
Oooooh. I’d heard of Family Circle. Never knew it changed to Family Circus. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/15 "2019-10-22T01:18:41Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh goddamnit. I thought you meant _Family Circus_ was ending. > > Seems like that comic has been around for 187 years. :smack: Shit… saw the feed, read/thought-I-read the same thing. Finally, Billy is dead! But no such luck. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/16 "2019-10-22T01:31:49Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Somehow, I have a subscription to “PopSci.” > Maybe it was a present, I dunno. > But, setting aside the asinine name (what was wrong with “Popular Science, hmmm?), the magazine is almost unreadable. The articles are all don’t in “infographic” style, with tiny text that flows randomly around photos and illustrations. Maybe this is what passes for modern layout, but for me, it just makes the magazine worthless. > Seems to me that trying to capture the youth market is just alienating the subscribers that currently have. I subscribed to Popular Science for over 20 years(from 1985 to roughly 2010) and stopped because in the last few years they kept changing the format around. All of my favorite magazines are now out of print: Wizard: The Guide to Comics Toyfare PC World Computer Shopper Cracked MAD Magazine Backwoods Home I guess print is just a dying medium. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/17 "2019-10-22T01:40:40Z")
Back in the day, I loved _Computer Shopper_. Each 20 pound lump was my bible for a month. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/18 "2019-10-22T01:58:07Z")
My mother dragged me along to the “beauty parlor” weekly to get her “hair done” back in the 60s when I was a kid. If I ran out of reading material I would fall back on the women’s magazines. I was fond of the page long weight loss ads for AIDS, a candy you would eat before eating, to fill you up so you wouldn’t overeat. Those ads disappeared by the early 80s. I wonder why? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/19 "2019-10-22T02:53:09Z")
I guess this means my mom might finally catch up on her magazine backlog. Though I don’t think she’s actually subscribed for a while (because of, well, her backlog). ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998/20 "2019-10-22T03:26:47Z")
well its auidence had been diminishing for decades which was mainly housewives and grandma types that needed the latest recipe for dinner or decorating tips for the holidays along with knowing the latest diet/medical trend and throw-in a celb interview a few feel good stories and a chapter or two 9f next months must have romance along with shopping guides and there you have every issue of fc ever [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-end-of-an-era-family-circle-ending-after-87-years/841998.md?page=2)