I don't think I've ever talked about magazines on this blog, and yet I've had a life-long love of them. I grew up on a diet of Mad Magazine and Reader's Digest along with second-hand copies of the Australian Women's Weekly, New Idea, Woman's Day and Family Circle passed down to my mum from her magazine junkie sister.
As a teenager I used to spend my pocket money on the Australian edition of Smash Hits and later, when my musical tastes "matured", I regularly bought Q magazine and Rolling Stone.
I then went through a "green" phase (I studied environmental planning as an undergrad) and took out subscriptions to Australian Geographic and Habitat, the journal of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
As a postgrad journalism student I discovered the delights of Vanity Fair and, despite the odd year or two when I made cuts to my magazine-spending budget, I've been a subscriber ever since. At about this time I started buying much more diverse magazines on an irregular basis, such as GQ, The Bulletin, Who Weekly, Marie Claire and Empire.
Ironically, I ended up working in the magazine industry when I moved to the UK, first in business-to-business magazines and then in consumer magazines. It didn't change my passion for them, but it did make me look at them in a different way. Now I can't pick up a magazine without analysing the fonts, the paper quality, the picture usage, the ratio of editorial pages to advertising ones, the coverlines and so on.
These days I tend to stick to foodie mags and the odd lifestyle title. I have subscriptions to Vanity Fair and Olive, and I tend to buy Ideal Home* every couple of months. A few months back I discovered Jamie Oliver's own magazine, Jamie, and while I wouldn't call myself a fan of the chef this magazine is absolutely sumptuous; it has the highest production values of almost anything else on the market, with gorgeous mat paper and stunning photography throughout. It's a real treat to sit down and read.
How about you? Do you read magazines? Which are your favourites?
* Disclaimer: In the interests of transparency, I work for the company that produces this one.
