When I scan the newsstands one of the issues that stands out is a magazine called "Real Simple." It’s purportedly about simplifying your life in various ways, and I’ve been tempted to buy one occasionally.

I was in luck, someone left an old issue in the lunchroom yesterday.

All I can say is thank God I’ve never wasted my money on this junk. And I thought "Woman’s Day" had gotten simple-minded. "Real Simple" is, for one, almost one enormous ad. Two-thirds of the magazine is advertising. Some of it is advertising that gives advice, but mostly, is just big full-page color ads. Simplifying your life, my foot. Most of the ads are for expensive products and clothing. What magazine is left is devoted to few words and a lot of esthetic white space: large white gutters, large white gaps between columns.

I see an increasing instance of magazines being "dumbed down." Another magazine I found in the lunchroom was the December 2003 issue of "Reader's Digest." Remember when RD was full of articles with a few illustrations and occasional photo features? It looks like "Jack and Jill for Boys and Girls" now. The "Quotable Quotes" are scattered on the page instead of in neat columns, in different colors and different fonts." The so-called "book section" is now one chapter from a book rather than a condensed version. Worse, RD has gone in for the "big colored words" type of journalism: you know what I mean. Pullouts, and entire sections, are emphasized by putting certain words and phrases in larger, colored type.

"TV Guide" has gone the same way. Anyone remember when, among the usual fluff pieces on the stars of the time and occasional photo essays, "TV Guide" had in-depth articles on...gasp...television issues, like censorship, violence, news reporting, and all the articles were in ten-point type and actually had information in them, even if they were fluff pieces? Now it's all photos, graphics, big type, and--you guessed it, "big colored words." (The "big colored words" phenomenon has even passed into book publishing. Good God.) Of course, it's getting harder to find articles about TV in "TV Guide" anyway. Almost every other issue has a movie-oriented cover these days. I can see "TV Guide" covering movies that were once television series (Charlie's Angels," and the like), but what in the heck has the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Harry Potter (both of which I like) to do with television?

And folks wonder why I read so many British magazines these days? At least the ones I'm buying are written for people who have more brains than God gave a goat.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:35:00 AM

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