On Facebook, the media eats itself. Ten days ago, The Daily closed its doors. This week, Newsweek published its last print issue. Today, this ad appears to be banking on picking up old Daily customers by selling them on Newsweek’s digital edition using Facebook ads. That’s not depressing at all.
It’s here! Click through on the photo of the cover of Somersault’s Volume 1, Issue 1 to read our magazine in full (for free). The cover art is Paul in Paris by Gregory Muenzen.
Stay tuned: we’ll be posting the pieces individually on our website as well so that you can share and comment.
And here it is, all ready to be read.
One of the coolest Tumblr projects in a long while, in editorial form.
![Seventeen Magazine and the Body Peace Treaty: Building on a victory
Here’s the second entry in our weekly post series, “The Pitch.” This post, written by our very own Sami Main, analyzes the broader impact of Seventeen Magazine’s recent “Body Peace Treaty.” Find her on Twitter over here.
It happened once. Can it happen again? It’s the stuff of really great TV shows: A few months ago, 14-year-old Julia Bluhm led a petition against Seventeen, a magazine whose audience is primarily young girls. She wanted editors at the magazine to adopt healthier Photoshopping habits and to use models that look more “realistic” to actual people. What happened next (hint: look at the picture above) has some wondering if Bluhm may have started a real trend. ShortFormBlog’s Sami Main analyzes the cultural impact of Bluhm’s simple idea with a wide reach. Read more after the jump.
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A simple petition, a big impact
84,000 signatures on Bluhm’s petition
» The end result: The magazine’s editor-in-chief Ann Shoket effectively gave into the petition — while claiming “we never alter the way the girls on our pages really look,” the person in charge of the magazine made a promise to her readers. “Our Body Peace Project is one of the cornerstones of our mission,” she wrote in a note responding to the petition. “We want every girl to stop obsessing about what her body looks like and start appreciating it for what it can do! And while we work hard behind the scenes to make sure we’re being authentic, your notes made me realize that it was time for us to be more public about our commitment.”
The reaction to the message
Now, it’s great that Seventeen has come forward, after some pressure, in order to be more open and honest about its policies. (It’s also a big victory for an activist group, SPARK, which has been fighting to limiting sexualized images of young girls in mainstream culture.) Magazines that have a younger audience have more of a responsibility to their readers who are still developing their self-image. Overall, reaction to the message has been positive, though some cultural commentators disagree with the motivations behind the idea. “If you want to use ‘real girls,’ Shoket, go for it,” argues Slate writer Hanna Rosin, citing the model used in the photo accompanying the “Body Peace Treaty” image. ”That might make for a really cool photo shoot. But this is not it.”
Previous cultural context, in Barbie form
While Barbie’s trademark nipple-less, mountainous, hard-plastic breasts are being cut down to size and that itty-bitty waist is getting bigger, her hips are also set to slim down with the new model, making her not so much more healthy and realistic as simply pubescent.
Mother Jones writer Lisa Jervis • Discussing a 1997 change to Mattel’s iconic Barbie dolls, which changed their waists and bust size. But the changes Mattel made didn’t come from the same motivations as Seventeen Magazine’s recent changes: Mattel’s change to conform to the “reality of fashion,” where Seventeen’s change came more from a place of compassion and understanding. source
The next target: Teen Vogue
Next up? Another magazine: With one victory past them, another petition was started by Carina Cruz and Emma Stydahar, two of Bluhm’s friends, against Teen Vogue. “It’s time for an end to the digitally enhanced, unrealistic ‘beauty’ we see in the pages of magazines,” reads the petition. “We are demanding that teen magazines stop altering natural bodies and faces so that real girls can be the new standard of beauty.” Teen Vogue, however, might be a tougher nut to crack.
32,000 signatures on the newest petition source
» The magazine’s reaction: It looks like Teen Vogue might be a tougher nut to crack. “Teen Vogue makes a conscious and continuous effort to promote a positive body image among our readers. We feature healthy models on the pages of our magazine and shoot dozens of non-models and readers every year and do not retouch them to alter their body size,” Erin Kaplan, the magazine’s PR rep, said to AdWeek. Some media outlets, like Gawker’s female-oriented Jezebel, reacted to the magazine’s statement negatively.
So what’s the next step, anyway?
One step forward, one step back. It seemed like there was a good amount of momentum toward a healthier age of magazines when Seventeen announced its support. Teen Vogue may not be as body conscious as other publications, but young readers still look to its pages for advice and guidance; that’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The fact that it has ignored such a request from its readers is a little disheartening. Maybe once it sees the effects of the positive press Seventeen received, Teen Vogue will change its tune. Beyond the magazine world, is there something popular culture can learn from Seventeen?
Sami Main is a ShortFormBlog staff writer who’s big on BuzzFeed. Contact her @samimain.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m79jx0Yn7U1qas8z9o1_500.jpg)
Here’s the second entry in our weekly post series, “The Pitch.” This post, written by our very own Sami Main, analyzes the broader impact of Seventeen Magazine’s recent “Body Peace Treaty.” Find her on Twitter over here.
It happened once. Can it happen again? It’s the stuff of really great TV shows: A few months ago, 14-year-old Julia Bluhm led a petition against Seventeen, a magazine whose audience is primarily young girls. She wanted editors at the magazine to adopt healthier Photoshopping habits and to use models that look more “realistic” to actual people. What happened next (hint: look at the picture above) has some wondering if Bluhm may have started a real trend. ShortFormBlog’s Sami Main analyzes the cultural impact of Bluhm’s simple idea with a wide reach. Read more after the jump.
Shop’s been dropped: Seventeen magazine’s editor-in-chief Anne Shoket, bowing to the pressures of fourteen-year-old Julia Bluhm’s 84,000-signature petition, agreed to stop photoshopping the girls featured in her magazine. The new “Body Peace Treaty” makes a pledge to diversity within the magazine regarding body shape, size and skin color. In an interview with NPR, Shocket assured listeners Photoshop would only be used to fix errant strands of hair or acne blemishes to “make you look like you would on your best possible day.” Excellent work, Julia. source
HuffPo’s new weekly iPad magazine, ”Huffington.”, just launched today. It’s a free download, though issues cost 99 cents a piece. Check it out if you ever wondered what HuffPo would be like with more in-depth stories and better design.
We’ve had to make some big and difficult decisions, perhaps the biggest and most difficult of which involved letting several members of our editorial team go last Friday. These were great people who contributed a lot to GOOD. We wish them the best and expect that they will do great things.
GOOD has always been a work in progress, and even as creating and spreading awesome content by amazing people will continue to be a critical part of what we do, this was a step we felt was important to take as we pursue a refined strategy to inform, connect, and empower the community of people who give a damn.
“Refined strategy” sounds like corporate-speak for cutting back. A number of really awesome employees got laid off in a really lame way last week, getting pushed out a day after a party in honor of the magazine’s latest issue.
Update on the GOOD layoffs: the fantastic Cord Jefferson was also let go. If he’s unemployed for more than 10 minutes, the world is broken.
Also on the list, among others: Ann “EditorRealTalk” Friedman and Amanda Hess (who previously worked at torn-asunder-too-soon noble experiment TBD). A major sadface was made across the Internet.
Welcome to our first edition of the Newsweek also-rans, a brand new nwk tumblr feature from our friends in the art department!
Here’s Dirk Barnett, Newsweek & The Daily Beast’s Creative Director:
Every week we produce anywhere from 10-20 different cover ideas until we settle on what works best or as the story develops, so at the end of each week we wind up with a proverbial wastebasket full of scrapped concepts.
The week’s cover, “The Politics of Sex,” is a perfect example to kick this off. These directions are a combination of ideas generated in-house and commissions to various illustrators, designers, studios, ad agencies, etc. This week, we tapped the creative minds at ad agency Hill Holiday and the design studio Dress Code, as well as renowned book designer Rodrigo Corral. Take a look at what’s left on our cutting room floor this week. Enjoy!
Here’s the cover that made newsstands this week. Which of the also-rans is your favorite?
[Design credits, from top left: Dress Code, Dress Code, Hill Holiday, Hill Holiday, Hill Holiday, Rodrigo Corral, Rodrigo Corral]
Are these covers better than the one that actually ran? Admit the one with the condom flag (bottom right) is kind of amazing.
Does Time water down its story coverage in the U.S.? That’s a question which has been floating around the interwebs since yesterday, when the internet hivemind figured out that Time ran a soft feature in this week’s U.S. edition, while the rest of the world got a much more important story about Egypt. (Fellow Tumblr Jessica Binsch did a Storify breakdown of the online reaction.) Most of us can agree Time probably blew this cover choice. However, we’d like to offer another argument here: That the magazine is merely playing to different markets, rather than blatantly dumbing down its U.S. coverage. Our latest Tumbl-zine (it’s been a while, we know) breaks down the past year in Time covers, by region and type of content. Here’s what we found.
Clarification: Any cover in this list that didn’t run in the U.S. does not necessarily mean the story attached to the cover didn’t get played in the U.S. edition of the magazine. Any commentary is specifically in regards to the covers themselves, not the stories.
Update: Time responds!
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Would like to note that I’m a new subscriber to The Atlantic’s print edition. They earned my cash with their online presence. As a Web-first news consumer, this is kind of a big step for me. Other mags take note. — Ernie @ SFB
Google has a spiffy new magazine. They say it’s for advertisers and partners in the UK, but we bet people would actually buy this thing in an app store. “Think Quarterly” has a better set of table of contents pages than many mags have feature spreads. We don’t even care what it’s about. It’s Google. It involves graphic design and thinking. And it’s awesome. source
Ouch! Below the belt, Jack. Visual content treatment ≠lacking content.
The Society of Publication Designers has a first look of Dirk Barnett’s redesign of Newsweek, along with an interview:
Tell us about your plan with infographics in the magazine.
Infographics, another element killed off over the past few years at Newsweek, will definitely be coming back. While we plan to up the presence, we have no plans to blow them out in aBloomberg/Wired direction, our content just doesn’t require or sustain it (plus, Bloomberg Businessweek is killing it, who can compete with that?!). Rather, it will be a vital tool to telling elements of stories that photogrpahy or illustration just don’t nail. We have introduced a new page, DataBeast, that will give us the opportunity to do a weekly infogrpahic on various subjects.
Click through for more pages from the new Newsweek.
A great look for a great magazine looking for a fresh spark. The biggest change? No more slab-serif logo. It’s kinda like what would happen if Time got rid of the red borders on its front page. Bold.
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