I miss magazines. This maybe it my nearing 40 nostalgia and a rosy coloured musings about my early 20s but I miss going into a local pharmacy and grabbing a copy of Essence magazine or New African Woman.
The only local magazine that I see in a few spots is Kuya, the real estate magazine by Coldwell Banker.
But I grew up on Essence, Cosmopolitan, Elle and even the Food Network and HGTV magazines. I remember the quizzes, op-ed pieces, fashion, food and home inspirations and all the aspirational and inspirational editorial features and I miss that now. But they say print is dead. And the tides is shifting but I feel as millennials we miss those days.
On TikTok recently I saw two things that made me ache for the days of magazines and mourn its end at the same time. There were AI models in a recent edition of Vogue and then someone from South Africa in one of her daily vlog walked past what appeared to be an abandoned office complex that she said once housed magazines in the Cape Town.
An another thing, I feel as if we are all waiting with anticipation and failing at avoiding the Devil Wears Prada 2 movie production snippets, pics and vidoes.
But print is dead, it is one of the longest deaths or dying period ever and I have been hearing that since 2014 but I still miss magazines.
When I hear of a new regional e-zine pop up, I always sign up for newsletters but they tend to fizzle out and nothing new seems to dominate the Caribbean lifestyle media landscape. Maybe other islands have better media experiences but for me, in Jamaica, I don’t see any new or existing publications that I can get excited about and champion.
Hell, even digital media is folding – we all saw what happened to Loop Media in July.
So where does that leave us editors, readers, writers and dreamers?
I honestly don’t know.
I feel as I am nearing a career crossroads and I don’t know what road or path I will end up in. Digital marketing interests me but I feel drained by constant social media. I enjoy crafting newsletters, I will write the hell out of a blog post and website copywriting has my heart. I am on TikTok and IG every day and I like, follow, comment and re-post but to be the person posting every day and becoming a content creator is simply not my ministry.
Here is my lukewarm take, content creation is a skill that interests me but I don’t want that to be my career or hell day job or side hustle (I hate the word side hustle).
One of the most special moments of my early career was getting my op-ed on natural hair published in a 2009 edition of New African Woman and at the time I felt that was the beginning of my magazine career but sadly that didn’t happen.
And yet as I write this and even as print is dead, blogs are so 2015 and short form video (TikTok and IG reels) dominate, I am thankful for My Jamaican Vignettes, this slice of the internet where I can connect and share and just be me.
I miss magazines. I am nearing 40 and I feel nostalgic and while I don’t fear the future, I have no idea where I will end up in another year or two and for right now that is OK.
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What is/was your favourite magazine?
Is there a local Jamaican or even Caribbean digital magazine that is worth subscribing to?
Share and let’s chat.
See you guys in September!
Take care.
Oh I miss magazines too. The highlight of a trip to the pharmacy was being able to by a Glamour of Cosmopolitan magazine. I did try the online versions of both but quit my subscriptions because it just didn’t ‘hit the same’. The pharmacies hardly even have bookshelves anymore much less magazines. Maybe there will be a shift in the future as a vintage thing. We can only hope.
Oh I do miss those days, pharmacy trips meant a new magazine. I’m hoping that even for a short window there will be an element or a 18 month cycle run of nostalgic feature and we will have glossy magazines in our hands again. I used to enjoy a few virtual access editions via my Scribd subscription so like BBC Good Food and Dwell but I cancelled the subscription as well.
I miss them too. I miss having print books instead of my Kindle. I miss print. I’ve started buying thrift books lately. Books are the last basion of physical media that we can own. Movies and shows and software and ebooks are all subscriptions or licenses. Books are ours.
Stephanie, same here. I’m buying more physical books especially those I’ve already read as ebook or audiobooks and loved. I need to own my books. I want a bigger bookshelf because now the small case I have is overflowing but buying books is always worth it.
I miss print magazines too! The glossy paper, the sample perfume scents. I liked seeing them in waiting areas.
Marsha-Gay, oh my goodness the perfume samples. Such a fun time.