When I first heard the news about a month ago that this April’s issue of PREMIERE magazine was to be its last, I panicked.
The first stage was denial. I double-checked the article to make sure it wasn’t a premature April Fool’s prank, or the blogger’s idea of a sick joke. I read about it on EW.com (which is telling, as you’ll soon see) and figured maybe they were trying to put their rivals out of business somehow. But no. I checked other sources and the news was true. PREMIERE magazine was dead.
After a lot of soul searching, diary writing, and ice cream gorging, I”m far down the long road to recovery. But today I read an article in VARIETY by film columnist and former PREMIERE writer Anne Thompson about some of the reasons behind the mag’s demise, and discovered that I,along with many others, am responsible for the destruction of one of the world’s best movie magazines.
Not only does Thompson’s article detail PREMIERE’s downfall, but she warns that long-form, feature-driven movie magazines in general are becoming an endangered species, and that it’s all because of THE NET. She claims that in today’s quick-fix culture, no one wants to read a well thought-out, thoroughly-researched feature anymore, and that we’re all searching for breaking news and instant photos, all of which the web is ideal in delivering. Basically when it comes to movie news, the internet is putting print magazines out of business. This is the reason that the PREMIERE name will live on, but in online form.
It’s sad that the market isn’t big enough for both forums, because they both take very different approaches in the way they cover the movies, each way being equally valid. I personally loved reading Premiere’s features, as their articles were infused with a literary sensibility and provided a true insider’s look into the films we love and the people who make them. I guess the whole thing is kinda like, why pay for porn when you can get it for free online, right? Anyway, it’s a complicated issue, but Thompson’s fascinating article certainly sheds light on it. Read it HERE.
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