Do you enjoy magazines?

Years ago when I used to work as a dental nurse the receptionist and I used to buy Woman and Woman’s Own and read them avidly during the lunch break, but don’t buy any now, I picked up Hello magazine at the hairdressers recently and felt as if I was in a parallel universe as I didn’t recognise anything or anyone, I was quite relieved when I found a soap powder advert as it was the only thing I recognised.

I used to subscribe to Woman and Home and really looked forward to it arriving because I felt it included my age group in its range and so was relevant to me. But, bit by bit it moved towards much younger women and, regularly, much skinnier models until I felt it no longer represented me so I cancelled my subscription. At the same time, I was receiving a free subscription to Good Housekeeping magazine, through my bank account. I still get that every month but, lately, I don't always bother opening it 🤔.

i always loved the my weekly and the peoples friend, i lived with my gran and she got them every week, i was only 13 but loved the stories, i moved on to take a break and chat for the puzzles and would send them in every week. now i use my kindle on the largest print and read about 3 books a week.

I was lucky enough to win a year's subscription to Readly. It gave me access to hundreds of magazines. We now subscribe for £7.50 a month as hubby and I got so much enjoyment from the wide range of mags and newspapers available. Cannot recommend it highly enough.It's the only subscription we have as not normally a fan but this is such good value for money when you consider the horrendous price of magazines these days.

If I'm doing a project (kitchen, bathroom, decorating etc.) I sometimes buy a couple of magazines to get ideas

I use Pinterest for ideas these days. It's online and it's free. I have spend many an 'hour' going down a Pinterest wormhole.

I sometimes enjoy the RHS magazine too, but was irritated last month when the article about peat free compost gave very little real information or advice, though it was the cover story.

I used to have subscriptions to a couple of magazines. However I found that Christmas editions were awful, almost identical every year, and the saving you make on a subscription during the first year is often not much more than the cost of one month's magazine. So now I just buy one occasionally if I see one that looks particularly interesting.
If I'm doing a project (kitchen, bathroom, decorating etc.) I sometimes buy a couple of magazines to get ideas, but so many articles, photos and editorials are taken almost directly from manufacturers publicity material so they're very repetitive. Also so many pages are simply advertising.

Only ever bought them at the airport before a flight. Now only read a magazine at the hairdressers when I really enjoy the gossip in Hello or OK mags. Oops, forgot I'm an RHS member so do get their monthly magazine which I enjoy.

I've never been one for magazines, modern ones seem to be full of adverts and showbiz gossip so not for me. However in 2018 whilst waiting around in hospital for transport home from radiotherapy I used to read the magazines to make the time pass. I started reading a People's Friend including what turned out to be quite an interesting serial, so the following week I had to buy the next issue to find out what happens next. 2024 and I'm still buying it every week as the serials overlap and I'm one of those people who has to finish a story whether it's boring me or not. I always have to know what happens next. Luckily it's not too expensive so I don't begrudge it.

I love magazines but us the online library service. Libby. All magazines, daily newspapers & billions of books all available FREE!

I gave up on Good Housekeeping and Woman & Home years ago, too much fashion, (Yikes! who would wear that?), cooking (with impossible ingredients) and house decoration aimed at the Chipping Norton set.

Instead I subscribe to Saga magazine which has more sensible articles and 'The Oldie' which has cartoons to make you smile and interesting articles, aimed at us 'old 'uns'.

I subscribe to Readly online. Nearly every magazine you can think of. Its 9.99 a month but you can have 5 people so I share mine with my daughter's one loves all the recipe gardening and food magazine. The other one and I prefer the as my late husband used to call them trash day Tuesday as that's when they came out. But I do read the knitting ones! He just read his motorcycle news and all the motor bike editions. I think you can get a trial. My daughters would disown me if I gave it up!

I steer well away from any 'womens' magazines - and the Daily Male - all aimed at marketing by inducing feelings of inadequacy. Very bad for one's mental health and self esteem. Mags about the real world - fine.

I used to buy Woman and Home some years back but stopped when the cover celebrities photos were so enhanced you could hardly recognise them.
Also a life improvement story by a woman who recommended a particular CD (it was sime time ago) said that it had helped her turn her life around. It turned out I knew someone who knew her....and the woman involved actually owned the business producing the CDs. So hardly unbiased!

Also the fashion styles didn't apply to me pricewise and style wise. I agree there is a gap in the market for my age group 70+ but not fuddy duddy. And in a paper format. Unlikely though.

I subscribe to Prima (with the free pattern) though I haven't even opened the last one.

I used to read Good Housekeeping / Woman and Home every month but the articles seemed to be very repetitive. I usually buy one when we are going on holiday. They are too expensive now and seem to be more adverts than content.

We get the National Trust magazine as we are members.

I also have a subscription to Style at Home. It is one of the cheaper magazines and I get it because I am into interior design. It is more realistic than the more expensive glossy house mags.

Like many other posters, I have read magazines throughout my life, starting with Mandy, Bunty, June and Schoolfriend. Then progressing to Petticoat before going onto the grown up magazines. What was the one with Burt Reynolds as a centrespread?

I pick up the Tesco and Asda's own free magazines. It is mainly advertising their own stuff but they have some really good recipes

RosiesMaw

I used to love when my Good Housekeepng arrived- it had so much in it which interested me. Then we planned a move to the country and I added in Country Living , but soon found that it was more Daylesford Farm Shop and Chiantishire than my muddy village.
But still.
Now I find them glossy and expensive, full of ads, dropping leaflets and flyers everywhere, stuffed with articles about women who have reinvented their lives /started a multi million pound business on the kitchen table or climbed Kilimanjaro with a ton of HRT on their back.
They mostly seem to have a lot in common - spiky heels, big hair, expensive frocks- oh and a failed marriage or two by the wayside.
I miss the old days!

Re all those leaflets, a Swedish friend who was staying once picked up the newly delivered Sunday paper and promptly exclaimed, ‘Oh, what are all these falling-out things?’

We’ve called them that ever since.

I buy Chat, That's Life!, Love It! Pick Me Up, but I buy them once monthly instead of weekly because it'll be costing me a fortune!

I love magazines. Vogue, the New Yorker, Grazia, Mslexia, any and all home design publication.

Used to love a magazine but haven’t bought one for years, the Christmas Radio Times apart. Have fond memories of collecting School Friend from the newsagents and reading it as I walked to school; the Children’s Newspaper and the short lived Young Elizabethan were my mother’s preferred and improving choices!

I bought Good Housekeeping and Womans Journal when first married and for years Then Woman and Own. Now they no longer seem to relate to my life style. No recipes for one or two they are often highly spiced. Clothes my Dd's would think twice about wearing and good pieces way out of price range,
I think if someone brought out a magazine for 60+ years they would make a killing.
I agree with all that Maw says.

Haven't bought a women's magazine for years - too much stuff about clothes, makeup and cooking

Isn't that what magazines aimed specifically at women have always been about? Although, thumbing through magazines at the hairdressers, I would suggest that magazines like Marie Claire and Good Housekeeping and others have plenty of contnt that goes well beyond the range you mention.

Up until recently Ibought the Artist Magazine. As I had so many and I found that a lot of the articles were not really new to me I cancelled the subscription I had for so many years. We do subscribe to the Total tv magazine. Other than that I find the majority of other magazines tend to be banal and not of interest to me. In the old days I enjoyed The Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Realm.

Haven't bought a women's magazine for years - too much stuff about clothes, makeup and cooking - but I do like The Oldie which I used to get on subscription. I would also buy Private Eye if only the print was not so small.

I read the magazine with the Saturday Times, my weekly newspaper and bought the Christmas Radio Times, other than that the occasional freebie from M&S.
I was given a subscription to Gardeners World many years ago but I now get information online.

Forgot to mention I get the Waitrose magazine free with the Waitrose card.