I went to the Hudson News stand in Grand Central just now to find the new issue of “The Advocate,” which has a cover story on “AbFab” (p.s. that issue’s not out yet).
So I look in General Interest; I look in Lifestyles. I look in Newsweeklies and Show Business and Fashion . . . I finally ask where it is, and I am haughtily pointed to the Porn section, where “Out” and “The Advocate” are nestled cozily alongside “Sluts ‘n’ Slobs” and “Juggs.”
WTF?! So tits and dicks rags like “Cosmo” and “Men’s Health” and “Esquire” are in the General Interest secion, but “The Advocate” is PORN? Hudson News is going to get a Sternly Worded letter from THIS annoyed het.
How the Heck are Out and [i\]The Advocate* designated as PORN?? There’s nary a weiner to be seen in either of them. They’re news and lifestyle magazines for gay folks. Heck, if they want to misfile magazines, they should should put Men’s Workout and Men’s Physique in the porn section, since they’re basically stroke mags for closet cases.
In the store yesterday I saw Maxim behind the counter, in a sealed bag. The bag could be for a promo with this month’s issue, I suppose, but why is it behind the counter?
One local grocery store chain now puts Cosmo behind one of those porno-partitions in the racks near the cash registers. Apparently they had a lot of complaints from “what about the children” types about the racy covers.
Pretty sure they’d miss the revenue from ±10% (nobody ask me for a cite, it’s just what I’ve heard) of the population if word ever got out about HN’s product placement of (what sounds like) non-pornographic lifestyle magazines. Fuckers.
Perhaps a letter to the above mentioned magazines may also be beneficial. They could get the word out to their readership.
BTW, I buy car magazines in plastic covers (for special editions, etc) all the time, so I doubt they automatically put them behind the counter. I’ll play devil’s advocate (no pun intended) though: by definition, sexual identity has to do with sex. Perhaps an unknowing hetero sees the topic of the magazine, doesn’t peruse it to see it’s actual content, and puts it with the porno. I dunno, guess it could’ve happened that way.
Macro Man—I’ll wager “Out” and “The Advocate” already know . . . I work at a mag, and we keep up very much on newsstand placement.
gatopescado—“Out” and “The Advocate” are very respectible gay lifestyles/news magazines, both with plenty in 'em to interest straights, too. But Hudson News has decided that anything to do with them “homosexamules” must be dirty, so the mags are displayed alongsode the hard-core porn.
I have in the past seen stores that put the gay mags by the porn mags. This only adds to the relative trauma of buying a gay magazine when one is 13… sheesh.