The advertising marking has deterioated rapidly this autumn. Losing half of its content, Mademoiselle isn’t going to survive. Will anybody actually be mourning the end of this magazine?
Speaking as a long-unemployed member of the print media industry, I’d say that I would mourn Mademoiselle’s passing. Maybe not for the reasons you think, though.
I mourn it because it’s been around for a long time, and its death is a sign of just how bad things are in my profession. I mourn because a large number of editors and freelance writers will lose their jobs and/or a portion of their income, and will be competing with me for a shrinking number of new positions/assignments.
I had no use for the magazine itself, but just because it wasn’t targeted at me is no reason for me (or anybody else) to cheer its dissolution.
Jeez, it seems insensitive to say what I am about to say right after the Cap’n’s insightful post…but…
I won’t mourn it. One less glossy rag for young ladies to pummel their shaky self-esteem with. Good riddance.
I’m sorry to see anyone lose a job, and my best friend is in magazine publishing so stuff like this makes her nervous-- but I won’t miss the thing myself. I used to enjoy it, even though I knew I was at the high end of their demographic. Cute, funny Q&A columns, fairly decent if light content, and I always flip right past the clothing pages anyway.
Then they did some massive format change, took out all the features I liked, and made a stated effort to speak to women in the “Me Years.” I read the first few issues after the change and found the new attitude totally obnoxious-- where they’d been funny, they were now just irritating. I know the industry is a harsh place right now, but I wonder if they’d have failed when they did if they hadn’t screwed with the format. I’m sure I’m not the only person who stopped reading; I’d like to see their readership numbers pre- and post-change.
Damn… I have a subscription to that one. I don’t subscribe to it because I have a shaky self-esteem either. It’s aimed towards single women who get sick of reading about how wonderful having a man in your life is.
I agree with you totally. My mom gave me a subscription through my brother’s school fundraiser, and since the revamp I’ve basically been recycling the thing after only a cursory look.