Decoder Ring: Can the Bookazine Save Magazines?
Magazines have fallen on hard times \u2013 especially the weekly news, fashion, and celebrity mags that once dominated newsstands. The revenue from magazine racks has plummeted in recent years, and many magazines have stopped appearing in print or shut down altogether.\nAnd yet, there is something growing in the checkout aisle: one-off publications, each devoted to a single topic, known as \u201cbookazines.\u201d Last year, over 1,200 different bookazines went on sale across the country. They cover topics ranging from Taylor Swift, Star Wars, the Kennedy assassination, K-pop, the British royal family, and as host Willa Paskin recently observed, the career of retired movie star Robert Redford.\nIn today\u2019s episode, Willa looks behind the racks to investigate this new-ish format. Who is writing, publishing, and reading all these one-off magazines \u2013 and why? Is the bookazine a way forward for magazines, or their last gasp?\nVoices you\u2019ll hear in this episode include Caragh Donley, longtime magazine journalist turned prolific writer of bookazines; Eric Szegda, executive at bookazine publisher a360 media; and Erik Radvon, comic book creator and bookazine fan.\nThis episode was produced by Max Freedman and edited by Evan Chung, who produce the show with Katie Shepherd. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.\nIf you haven\u2019t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends.\nIf you\u2019re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring and all other Slate podcasts without any ads and have total access to Slate\u2019s website. Your support is also crucial to our work. Go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices