See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me!
Oct 19 '00
Wasn't that a song once? Hmmm.... to read it now or to wait.. that is the question. But, how long do I have to wait to read it? Well, in most cases not at all if you choose to read your favorite magazines on-line. Notice I said in most cases,. You might be able to peruse some of these sites from the comfort of your home, but navigating the site can be quite another story.
I tend to be an impulse buyer when it comes to magazines. They certainly do their marketing well with their enticement of the "beautiful" people, whether it be of the male or female gender. I'm just a sucker I guess for these gimmicks to get me to buy, and buy I do-- in mass quantities. At least, I used to anyway. Due to financial constraints, I've had to curb this insatiable delight. Not only that, half the time I was spending money on a magazine which looked promising on the cover, only to leave me wanting more-- more, as in more content of said article.
I did a little test case before I penned this review on some of the magazine sites. I wanted to see just what did they have to offer in terms of their magazines. How did the cover look? Were there photos? Could I read an entire article? Could I look at back issues? You get the picture. I looked at www.newsweek.com., www.time.com., www.vanityfair.com., and www.rollingstone.com. to name a few.
Of these particular magazines you can pretty much read them on-line and found them easy to navigate. The only one that does not allow you to read it per se is my favorite one, Vanity Fair magazine. You are allowed to read some of what is in the current issue, but not the article itself. This is the only magazine which I currently subscribe to and don't plan to ever let it lapse. It's that good. In fact, when my renewal for the subscription was coming due recently, I just renewed it on-line, which saved time through snail mail, not to mention the cost of postage. Of course, you need a credit card to do so, which is no problem for me.
READING ON-LINE
For one thing, it's FREE! We have all stood in line at the check-out in the grocery store and maybe started to read an article. Rather than purchase the magazine, just remember what issue you were reading, obtain the URL which is usually posted either on the cover or inside cover so when you get home, you can easily access it on-line. Another plus about reading on-line is that many times you may just want to read one or two articles, so why buy the whole magazine if you don't have to.
It is easy to order a back issue if you wish for a small fee. I didn't try to order one, so I don't know the exact price, but most of these issues go back at least 10 years. Also, if you don't wish to do this on-line, you can always obtain back issues of magazines or newspapers at your local library. I have done this with magazines before, myself. It's not to difficult to navigate on-line if you just follow the links.
READING THE ACTUAL MAGAZINE
Now, we all know how expensive these can be, especially if you subscribe to several. I used to get Newsweek weekly for a year and did not renew it, mainly because I just could not keep up with a weekly magazine. I got an extremely good deal on it when I signed up, so I saved over half of the cover price which is about $3.95 right now.
Because I spend so much time on-line and we all know how taxing it can be on our poor eyes, I personally like to just sit back with the 'real thing and find it much easier to read while holding in my hands rather than from a monitor. My Vanity Fair for example, I pretty much read that from cover to cover. It has a ton of advertising in it, but it's very up-scale and I love looking at the photos and the glossy pages. The articles are the lengthiest I have ever seen in a magazine and I personally like that. I don't just want a synopsis of a story; I want the story, and this magazine delivers every time. In this case with a longer story, it definitely is much easier to read in hard copy versus the monitor.
All in all, I don't think the 'real magazine will ever die, but in a pinch, it's nice to know that you can always catch it on-line. It's a nice alternative, especially with the election so soon and all the newsbreaking stories on the candidates. I also love the perfumed pages, which gives me a good sampling of what I might want to buy.
Happy reading, whatever route you decide!!
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Epinions.com ID:
linda1527
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Location: Minnesota
Reviews written: 87
Trusted by: 128 members
About Me:
Finally I am an ex-smoker as of 9/1/01
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