[HN Gopher] How to keep a great magazine going
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       How to keep a great magazine going
        
       Author : conanxin
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2023-02-12 07:11 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.texasmonthly.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.texasmonthly.com)
        
       | MisterBastahrd wrote:
       | The thing about Texas Monthly is that they have become a trusted
       | brand over the years because they are so high quality and they've
       | continued to innovate, which has buttressed against things like
       | reducing page count or print quality. They've got the right mix
       | of human interest, branding, and political stories. Politically,
       | they are definitely to Texas' left of center, but not in an "in
       | your face" sort of way. And their web team is top notch. When I
       | was tasked with redesigning a website a decade ago, my South
       | Carolina based internet publisher chose Texas Monthly's site as
       | one of our sources of inspiration.
        
         | ubermonkey wrote:
         | Wow. I find TM insufferably conservative, and entirely focused
         | on the wrong things most of the time (e.g., Dallas society).
         | 
         | They're still publishing, which is something, but I quit
         | reading them regularly a long, long time ago for want of
         | anything interesting between the covers. OTOH, if I want to see
         | full-page ads for $500 belt buckles, I know where to look.
        
           | korroziya wrote:
           | >Wow. I find TM insufferably conservative
           | 
           | You're probably insufferably liberal to most people.
        
           | shiftpgdn wrote:
           | Texas Monthly is in no way a conservative magazine. Are we
           | reading the same thing?
        
           | MisterBastahrd wrote:
           | I said left of Texas' center.
           | 
           | For example, the biggest ticket article today is titled "The
           | Campaign to Sabotage Texas's Public Schools." That's not a
           | conservative article by any means.
        
           | miguelazo wrote:
           | Left of liberal here and definitely disagree with this
           | statement. While I don't read it that frequently, or get the
           | print edition, I find many of their articles are highly
           | informative and worth sharing. Magazines often have to print
           | ads for ridiculous stuff, that's just how they keep the
           | lights on. Judge them by the content of their articles.
        
       | doodlebugging wrote:
       | This article reminds me of all those trips to the barber shop,
       | the dentist's office, or the doctor's office where in spite of
       | the fact that you had an appointment, you knew you were gonna
       | have to wait. One thing you could count on was that those places
       | would have a great election of magazines. Current or old issues
       | didn't matter since you just needed a way to pass the time. The
       | long form journalism in Texas Monthly was captivating to the
       | point where when the duckter finally quacked that it was my turn,
       | I would find myself cursing under my breath wishing for another
       | 10 minutes so I could finish that article. I usually came back
       | out of the appointment and finished reading so I could know how
       | the story ended. You never knew whether you would see that issue
       | again back then since those offices rotated things regularly.
       | 
       | We had a subscription back in the days when magazines in the mail
       | was a big thing. You could always look forward to things like the
       | Bum Steer awards where writers took shots at all the stupidity of
       | politicians, celebrities, etc. Their coverage of Texas events,
       | good, bad, or notorious was excellent and still is to this day.
       | The writer isn't joking about all the ads in the print version.
       | It was almost like thumbing through a catalog sometimes to find
       | hidden jewels in story form.
       | 
       | I still read the online version because there really isn't
       | anything quite like it for tales from Texas. Food, events,
       | history, government, etc. They cover it all in a manner that
       | appears to just lay it all out and leave it to the reader to
       | decide how to take it.
       | 
       | Thanks for this article.
        
       | korroziya wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-13 23:01 UTC)