Among my many love-hate relationships is my loyalty to Entertainment Weekly, a magazine I’ve been reading pretty much non-stop since its inception. Every year, though, I come very, very close to not renewing my subscription. Coincidentally each time my expiration comes up, EW does some kind of revamp of its format, usually in a way that makes it seem even more dumbed down than it already was. But I keep sticking with it, partly because it’s the only magazine that has that perfect balance between real journalism and gossip that I enjoy for such light-reading locales as the gym and the bathroom (sorry). It has somehow remained on the side of respectable movie coverage — even if it primarily serves Hollywood’s marketing departments — while its cousins US Weekly and Movieline completely caved to become clones of People and Star (hooray for the return of a better Movieline online, btw).
EW may not be for everyone, but for those of us who love it or need it as a kind of week-ending recap of Hollywood news and pop-cultural fluff, it would be a shame to see the print version disappear (despite the fact that blog, I actually don’t prefer to read content online and rarely visit EW.com to read features) or even merge with a more gossip-centric mag. And now that Time Inc. has canned Scott Donaton, EW’s fifth publisher in five years, the rumors and speculation circulating about the mag’s troubles have me worried that I’ll soon only have Mental_Floss left as far as light, enjoyable magazines I subscribe to.
Check out the terrific reactions of two other bloggers, both of whom have written for EW at some time (I actually wish I could say the same), after the jump. And chime in below if you also hope the mag sticks around and/or doesn’t change for the worse.
- Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere spreads an old rumor about the mag potentially folding into People, for which he hated working, and fondly recalls his days with EW, for which he has some advice:
the salad days are over. That means you abandon the big offices, have most of the staffers work from home, and…whatever, bump up Jess Cagle’s salary in exchange for a new title as publisher/managing editor. Don’t hire a new publisher at $250,000 a year — take the money and snag three or four new writers in order to add snappy content.
- Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood recognizes what EW does right and why they should continue doing it:
The weekly should not be stinting, in my view, on what they have to offer over the competition–great reporters who can report the hell out of stories early. The web can handle the fast-breaking stuff–but there is room for depth and context and consolidation in the mag…I wish EW was more like Premiere and less like People. And I wish the studios would step up their endemic advertising and support it, because I for one don’t want to live in an online only world. Magazine covers and gorgeous photo spreads and smart elegant profiles by the likes of Christine Spines set up a movie star unlike anything else.
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