# The Magazines have disappeared from the Newsstand **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153 "2014-06-19T16:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/21 "2014-06-20T18:14:38Z")
So, say, the one million word fanfic trilogy is not reading, but the one page Star article on the Kardashians is? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/22 "2014-06-20T21:13:34Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > So, say, the one million word fanfic trilogy is not reading, but the one page Star article on the Kardashians is? Yep! And really, someone slogging thru a fanfic sequel trilogy to the LOTR or something trying to tell me that was a better use of their reading time than a one page article about Kim and Kourtney wouldn’t get very far. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/23 "2014-06-20T22:47:29Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I’d put the line at works written for pay. That covers the New York Times web site, Evo magazine’s digital edition, and leaves room for special interest sites like Gizmodo and Jalopnik that are sort of semi-pro, but cuts off tweets, internet postings, fanfic and such So _Beowulf_ and certain editions of the Bible are inherently less worthwhile than something written in Cosmo that advises that the best way to sexually please a man involves biting his testicles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/24 "2014-06-21T01:06:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So _Beowulf_ and certain editions of the Bible are inherently less worthwhile than something written in Cosmo that advises that the best way to sexually please a man involves biting his testicles. To be fair, they were going to put the bit about biting testicles in _Beowulf_, but some people objected. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/25 "2014-06-21T06:57:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > To be fair, they were going to put the bit about biting testicles in _Beowulf_, but some people objected. Political correctness gone mad! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/26 "2014-06-21T11:39:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …and thereby you at least half make my point. If people are getting things from the internet, they don’t need the newsstand. The fact that the newsstand is failed, though, strongly suggests that they aren’t reading magazines anymore (As doers the precipitous decline in magazines. There are websites devoted to magazine deathewatches). Magazine reading is probably about the same. Because the content on many websites is the same content you’d previously get at the newsstand. And I think people would love to buy magazines if they actually didn’t cost $9.99 per issue. I help run my library’s book sale and we sell hundreds of magazines a day (probably more than your newsstand did before it decided to drop them) because they’re all priced at a quarter. There’s a sweet spot for magazine sales and you lose a lot of people when they’re over a fin. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/27 "2014-06-21T12:55:55Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So _Beowulf_ and certain editions of the Bible are inherently less worthwhile than something written in Cosmo that advises that the best way to sexually please a man involves biting his testicles. I suspect they have different audiences, and thus different ideas of what’s worthwhile, but yeah. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/28 "2014-06-21T16:38:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The only concession that justified the named “Newsstand” was that a wire rack at the front of the store sold a couple of newspapers. What are these “newspapers” things you speak of? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/29 "2014-06-22T06:00:21Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > What are these “newspapers” things you speak of? Low-quality printouts of yesterday’s news. Ink gets everywhere and the reporters are typically _not_ subject-matter experts, so quality on that front is a bit dodgy as well. If you want to know about an important issue, would you rather talk to someone who’s an expert, or someone who once talked to an expert on the phone for a while with a deadline breathing down their neck? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/30 "2014-06-22T13:09:59Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Magazine reading is probably about the same. Because the content on many websites is the same content you’d previously get at the newsstand. > > And I think people would love to buy magazines if they actually didn’t cost $9.99 per issue. I help run my library’s book sale and we sell hundreds of magazines a day (probably more than your newsstand did before it decided to drop them) because they’re all priced at a quarter. There’s a sweet spot for magazine sales and you lose a lot of people when they’re over a fin. Most of those magazines that disappeared didn’t reincarnate on the internet – they simply disappeared. There are a few that stayed around on the internet (Newsweek, American SCientist), but most of those magazines are gone for good. And the content and length of most internet articles, at least on the never-been-in-print e-zines tends to be shorter, bite-sized, not running to multiple pages. I strongly believe that the form of the internet (like any other medium) affects the form of the content. The internet tends to promote bite-sized chunks of reading, and a lot of interactive and picture-based content. I also suspect that it’s affecting the format of the formerly print-based webzines. So, yeah, you’ve got your multi-page Slate articles and the like, but the norm is more like “10 most ridiculous movie scenes”. So, no, I don’t think that people are reading as much, and sliding over to the internet certainly didn’t save print media, and it’s tending to truncate it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153/31 "2014-06-22T18:15:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are a few that stayed around on the internet (Newsweek, American SCientist), but most of those magazines are gone for good. Is that a whoosh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magazines-have-disappeared-from-the-newsstand/691153.md?page=1)