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May 2, 2003

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NYC's new magazine Radar is

NYC's new magazine Radar is out--Fametracker reviews. They pretty much diss it because it's a wannabe thinking man's US Weekly, an aspiration that I have no problem with. [maybe Whiskas and Babak should think about doing a blog together.]

-amy

    Adding to Amy's comments: Radar may not be particularly good, but it does seem to be popular: I've had some trouble finding it in the city. Magazine Man on 14th Street says it sold out the first day. The magazine's success seems to hinge on whether it can strike a chord with a younger version of Talk's audience. There are lessons to be learned from the failures of both Talk and the newish NY daily newspaper The Sun: If they put together a decent staff and spend money on reporting instead of lavish parties, they should be able to survive and eventually flourish. Their nearest significant competition is Vanity Fair, I think, which may be a little stodgy for Radar's target audience.

    The other thing they need to do is reconsider their in-your-face design. It may be eye-catching, but garishness tends to turn people off who are undecided about your product. Nobody wants to be visually confused by a general interest mag.

    Here's an interesting quote from the Fametracker piece and Radar itself:

    Radar's editor writes: "By tapping into the voice of an ascendant generation, Radar aims to be one of those rare titles -- like Rolling Stone in the '60s, Spy in the '80s, and Vanity Fair in the '90s -- that captures a cultural moment by getting there first." (Note: apparently the 1970s did not have a generation-defining magazine.
    Well, I think the generation-defining magazine of the 1970s was Highlights, which, incredibly, still exists. -adm

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posted by amy at 1:19 PM | #

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