The dumbing down of my favorite entertainment mag continues …
No sooner did I read about circulation drops and layoffs at Entertainment Weekly that I noticed the magazine’s content ch-ch-changing.
It’s all Britney, all the time … when it’s not counting down the Top 50 Sexiest Movies Ever. And its recent wrapup of the smartest people in TV listed the gals of “The View,” who collectively wouldn’t be considered bright even if you lowered the IQ bar a good 20 points.
What a shame.
The magazine is far from perfect, but it’s the most comprehensive entertainment bible in the market. If it can’t survive in print form, what chance do other pubs have?
The silver lining comes from the online world. The mag supposedly is drawing quite a crowd on the web, but it seems that mags and newspapers haven’t been able to leverage the web to bring in enough revenue to stay afloat.
Related posts:
I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought EW is now known for, “All Twilight, all the time”; it might as well be their slogan…
Great point, something that was on my mind but slipped away as I wrote that post. The funny thing is … I don’t think your average EW reader is a starry eyed 13-year-old girl … so why bend over backwards to reach out to them?
What a shame it has been to watch a once vital-reading (and fun-reading) magazine spiral downward. And it’s not just because of its one-note obsession with the likes of Britney and Twilight. EW, like every magazine in the last 8 years, has simply been unable to shake Bush Derangement Syndrome, with lefty politics openly infecting the pages. My wife and I gave up on it years ago.
I’ve been able to swallow its anti-Bush bias … maybe because each issue I know it’s coming, or it’s due to my affection for the mag in toto. But it’s clearly there … no different than nearly every other mag (even Men’s Health — which put Obama on the cover just as we were heading to the polls …)
I think you are right that EW is having a decline it quality, although I did not realize that it was specifically happening. When I used to get the magazine, I would take the first free hour or two I had to read it, even if dinner was a little late or I had to stay up late to do it. Now, I can wait several days or not even read it at all. I figured I was just busier, but upon further reflection, I think you guys are right. It is just not as good. Too bad, it was one of the best parts of my week.
Vanity Fair is another one I used to enjoy - it is now, however, the ultimate stop for BDS.
Rolling Stone is unreadable now if you’ve ever even considered pulling the lever for a Republican candidate. What a shame.