Media Roundup: Vogue, Redesigns, Berlusconi, & More

This week's roundup of media news from the worlds of magazines and newspapers:

• After enjoying The September Issue, the documentary about the making of Vogue's annual back-breaking mega-issue, I decided to purchase my first-ever copy of the magazine to see what it's really like. It took me more than a week to find a store that still had copies. I checked multiple Borders stores, a magazine shop, groceries and pharmacies that sell magazines -- all places I've seen the title before -- until I finally found a Safeway that still had a few copies.
• The Vogue edition, which notes on its cover that it's "the REAL September Issue!", includes about 584 pages (you could fit 10.4285714 copies of the latest issue of my magazine in that page count), is three-quarters of an inch thick, has its first contents page on page 112 that jumps to page 126 that jumps to page 146 that jumps to page 176, and is heavy enough to be dropped by Predator drones on suspected terrorist hideouts in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The Magazine Death Pool blog has its own fall preview. In its case, it's a preview of expected magazine deaths this autumn (when red ink will be the new black). You might quibble about some of their choices (after all, The New Republic has never been an advertising magnet), but it's at least snarky enough to perk up your morning caffeine intake.
• What does an otherwise modern country look like when more than 90 percent of its residents don't read a newspaper? Italy. Architecture and food's great, but you get Silvio Berlusconi, a walking nightmare for good-government types (hey, I'm from Wisconsin). Financial Times has a good overview of the current political situation for the Italian prime minister and prospects (dim) for Italy coming to its senses. They might want to start by getting a subscription to the FT.
• Folio: and the MPA report that magazine circulation has held up quite well in this media death season. It's advertising that hasn't pulled its weight. (Oh, how many times must I suggest that a few more magazines just think about rebalancing their revenue models to rely more on higher circulation revenue and less on advertising? Whatever.)
• Samir Husni (aka Mr. Magazine) interviews Christianity Today's senior managing editor, Mark Galli, about the magazine's new redesign. Galli repeatedly notes that the redesign was made because editorial was moving ahead of design in terms of how stories and news were handled. Will be interesting to see how they handle it. (Read the interview for a few examples.)
• Oh, let's finish up with Vogue again. Over at the Glossed Over blog (a very critical look at women's fashion magazines), they did a "live blog" of reading the giant September issue of the magazine. Wish I'd thought of that, but after turning all those pages, I think my fingers would be too tired to type.

My previous media roundup.

Magazine News Roundup: Levi Johnson, Creepy, Gay GOPers, Obamas on Covers, & More

Oh, what a week in magazines!

• Levi Johnson, the father of Sarah Palin's granddaughter, wrote an article in Vanity Fair that manages to surprise us even more -- and we thought we were immune to further Palinalia.
• Oh, and Levi Johnson is reportedly going to pose nude or semi-nude for Playgirl (presumably for its web site, because it ceased printing issues last year).
• Meanwhile, "actress" Linday Lohan has turned down nearly $1 million offered to her to pose nude for Playboy.
• The Obama takeover of America's publishing industry continues. One of the Obamas will be on covers of a number of Rodale magazines, including the newly launched Children's Health. President Obama will be the cover man of Men's Health's October issue. They will not be nude.
• Print magazines are dead, eh? Then why did a record 75 new titles launch in August? Huh, Mr./Ms. Smarty-Pants?
• Disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's wife Jenny does a tell-all in the September issue of Vogue. And it doesn't look good for him.
• Also, bad-boy Sanford is being tipped as the culprit behind rumors that Andre Bauer, his lt. governor and fellow Republican, is gay. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure this out: If Sanford is behind it, he's pretty clearly trying to scare off the easily-scared conservatives in the state government from forcing him out of office, because his position would then be filled by the presumably unfit-to-redecorate-the-governor's-mansion Bauer.
• Dark Horse Comics launched its new comics-size edition of former magazine-sized comics magazine Creepy. It's got all-new material; it's still continuing to publish its excellent hard-bound reprint editions collecting all of the original Warren Creepy magazines (and separately the Eerie magazines).