magazine subscriptions
For most of this year I have been ranting about the content of the Aussie magazines that I have been subscribed to - Scrapbooking Memories and For Keeps. It seems every issue that comes really deserves only a cursory browse, which more often that not annoys me by the obvious bias in the layouts and projects that get published.
Now, while I recognise that there is no right or wrong way to scrap, and that many scrappers have different motives for scrapping, it seems that the emphasis in publishing is for product placement and pages full of technique and embellishment, while the photo and stories run a poor second. The latest issue of Scrapbooking Memories, for example, has a four page "feature" about xyron product, mostly off-the-page projects completed by the design team. I am not even going to mention the innordinate number of off-the-page projects contained in these magazines - I have ranted enough about those already. I am a scrapbooker, I make scrapbooks to preserve my family's memories. Exactly what does one do with an altered mint-tin keepsake?
I guess the final issue with the Aussie mags is the number of boring ads - 61 out of 162 pages in the last issue of SM, barely disguised advertorials (I don't really give a hoot about the stores in Queensland, by the way), and the fact that there are so many awesome online galleries where I can look at layouts and garner inspiration.
The subscription offers don't even provide value-for-money any more (10 issues for $99 and $179 worth of bonuses? what the?), and my issues more-often-than-not arrive after they are available in our small country-town newsagency, so I will not be re-subscribing. I will hang onto my US-based subscriptions to Simple Scrapbooks and CK, I just wish SS came every month.
Now, while I recognise that there is no right or wrong way to scrap, and that many scrappers have different motives for scrapping, it seems that the emphasis in publishing is for product placement and pages full of technique and embellishment, while the photo and stories run a poor second. The latest issue of Scrapbooking Memories, for example, has a four page "feature" about xyron product, mostly off-the-page projects completed by the design team. I am not even going to mention the innordinate number of off-the-page projects contained in these magazines - I have ranted enough about those already. I am a scrapbooker, I make scrapbooks to preserve my family's memories. Exactly what does one do with an altered mint-tin keepsake?
I guess the final issue with the Aussie mags is the number of boring ads - 61 out of 162 pages in the last issue of SM, barely disguised advertorials (I don't really give a hoot about the stores in Queensland, by the way), and the fact that there are so many awesome online galleries where I can look at layouts and garner inspiration.
The subscription offers don't even provide value-for-money any more (10 issues for $99 and $179 worth of bonuses? what the?), and my issues more-often-than-not arrive after they are available in our small country-town newsagency, so I will not be re-subscribing. I will hang onto my US-based subscriptions to Simple Scrapbooks and CK, I just wish SS came every month.
posted by DebF at 7:19 pm
1 Comments:
I so agree Deb!! I don't subscribe because I can read them at work - we call it study time........lol,
But I much prefer the Simple Scrapbooks mags over any of the others. There is a new kiwi one called 'Up to Scrap' - but from what I've seen so far it is very similar to the Aussie ones.
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