Magazines // Current

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7 days ago

infoMania 7.2.09: Goodbye Michael Jackson

This week on infoMania we take a look at the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson media madness. Conor tries to figure out what the heck... more

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"Amid all the dismal reports about the death of fiction, here's a refreshingly bold act of optimism: a new bimonthly magazine called Electric Literature. And it's not just MFA kids self-publishing their diatribes against Mom and Dad. The first issue sports stories by such heavyweights as Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunningham and National Book Award finalist Jim Shepard.

With one foot in the past and one in the future, this new magazine is specifically designed for distribution on all platforms. If you're still enamored of paper, you can own the handsome print version for $10. But if you're too hip for that, download the e-version for $5. (An iPhone app is on the works, too.)

Publisher and editor-in-chief Andy Hunter, 38, used to work for the pop culture magazine MEAN before moving to New York, where he holds down a day job at an NGO at the United Nations. He and his co-publisher, Scott Lindenbaum, put up about 20 percent of the start-up money for Electric Literature and convinced investors to give them the rest. "We've been trying to do things as professionally as possible," he tells me by phone. "We were able to convince a few people of the prospects for literary fiction in the age of new media."

What makes this feasible -- or at least more feasible than some other start-up magazines -- is their print-on-demand structure. "A traditional literary magazine might print 4,000 at $2 each, and then those copies would either go through the mail or to bookstores with about a 50 percent sell-through. The rest would be pulped. But we don't have to do that because every copy is printed as it's ordered."

So far, Andy says they're doing better than they expected. "If there's any kind of hesitation, it's from people who don't really believe that a literary publication is viable. We started this publication to prove them wrong. There's a human need for storytelling that hasn't gone away just because print is having problems. We want to bring short fiction to an age that's more mobile and doesn't have the time to settle into a long text."

Every issue will follow the standard set by their debut: No poetry, no charcoal drawings, no essays, just five short stories, anchored by some big-name authors. (Andy drove five hours to meet Shepard in Western Mass. and convince him to contribute.)

What's most remarkable is that Electric Literature pays real money: $1,000. "We insist on being able to pay writers a large fee for their stories. We just don't believe that this sort of thing should be free." That fee scale has already brought in a large pile of submissions for the editors to paw through. The core staff is four, but they have about 10 "readers" to help them out.

They've got some creative marketing ideas, too, including an upcoming YouTube video based on Shepard's story and an army of street salesmen -- "the kinds of things that sneaker companies would do."

At the moment, they're thinking big -- 20,000 circulation -- and why not? They're off to a good-looking start.""Amid all the dismal reports about the death of fiction, here's a refreshingly bold act of optimism: a new bimonthly... more

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14 days ago

infoMania 6.25.09: The Whole Sparking Thing

This week on infoMania South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford lights the spark that sets the news world ablaze. America Don't... more

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14 days ago

Bruce Willis Does S&M

Bruce's kinky photo spread with his new wife made it onto the cover of 'W,' and that means it made it into... more

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15 days ago

The Future of Printed Journalism

A look at the present and future decline in printed media.

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16 days ago

BRUNO GQ Cover

I just got the newest GQ in the mail and was shocked to see their first nude cover featuring Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno… bahaha

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27 days ago

Mission Accomplished Colbert's high-risk, highly entertaining tour of Iraq.

Stephen Colbert failed to create a commensurate fuss this week in guest-editing Newsweek (Slate's big sister within the... more

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30 days ago

Edge giving away awesome poster to subscribers

Edge magazine, either the most pretentious or most essential UK gaming magazine depending on who you talk to, is giving away this... more

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1 month ago

Fairy Tales & Chocolate Flavored Condoms

People use fairy tales to sell just about anything... See more ads like this at http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=861

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1 month ago

Old Man Dick

Nudists are on the cover of 'Tan' magazine, and that means they're in 'We've Got You Covered,' Conor... more

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1 month ago

BRUNO...Marie Claire covergirl?!

Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy alter ego Bruno has outdone himself - scoring the front cover of fashion bible Marie Claire. In... more

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1 month ago

New Erotic Magazine for Women Fails to Excite

This week, a new magazine seeks to fill the gap left by failed publications such as Playgirl - but can it really claim to be plugging into the complex sexual psyche of the modern woman? Olivia Lichtenstein investigates.

Filament, the brainchild of 30-year-old former education quango worker Suraya Singh, promises 'stimulating reading, saucy fiction, beautiful men'. It trumpets itself as 'The thinking woman's crumpet', an erotica magazine for women and an alternative to the celebrity-obsessed magazines that currently rule our news stands.

Lichtenstein says so far, so interesting. But then she turns the pages and there are the pictures of 'Boys'. Most of them are somewhat effeminate, and none of them is arousing. They are apparently intended as an alternative to the oil-slicked musclemen that proliferate elsewhere. The editor claims her 'research' has shown her these models represent the sort of men women really find sexy.

There's an article about Hard Core v Soft Core, which is so self-consciously academic that it's difficult to understand why its author, a lecturer in philosophy at a British university, feels the need to write under a pseudonym.

Elsewhere, an article about pubic hair promises to get to 'the (front) bottom of what women are doing to their pubes these days'. It's a perfectly straightforward article, but hardly illuminating and rather mundane.

The rest of the magazine is made up of articles with titles such as Singleness And Coupleness (is that even a word?), subheaded 'Does being single always mean sh****ng around'; picture stories of half-naked men given such cheesy sobriquets as Guiltless and Firebrand; and an agony column entitled Ask A Feminist.

There is also some pretentious poetry and softcore fiction.

'While I suppose we should applaud the editor's desire to provide an alternative to the many indistinguishable magazines for women, I'm not sure this one is the answer,' says Lichtenstein. 'Filament poses under an unearned and unwarranted banner of erotica.'

Priced at £7, she says it's far too earnest and dull, and reads like a geeky girl's idea of what might be sexy.

For more of Lichtenstein's review, click on the link above.

Would you buy a magazine like this? If you were to design an 'erotic' magazine targeting women, what would you include in it?This week, a new magazine seeks to fill the gap left by failed publications such as Playgirl - but can it really claim to be... more