Hold on to your wigs and keys, there are two hot new magazines on the market: Sugarstring and CNET Magazine.
What is Sugarstring? Sugarstring.com delivers the latest in technology and lifestyle news for a generation that doesn’t separate tech from everyday living. From breaking news to thoughtful essays, best-in-class op-eds and beyond, this site covers what millennials really care about today.
Whoa, sign me up, and tell me more about this CNET magazine…
The issue includes ads from brands in categories that include automobiles, electronics, packaged goods and technology; among them are AT&T, Ford, Gillette, GMC, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Intel, Lenovo, LG, Porsche, Roku, Salesforce.com, Samsung, TiVo and Toyota.
Double whoa. I’m totally a millennial with beloved brands.
In all seriousness, Sugarstring, a magazine that sounds like it was developed by a committee of 40 year olds hopelessly out of touch with a marketing demographic that royally disdains them, is sponsored by Verizon and has more problems than just their description.
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball called CNET’s magazine “cute“, and everyone has dismissed the Verizon Shitstring.
But this raises interesting questions for me. In the same breath that everyone is panning these publications for being in print, everyone’s raising money for The Magazine’s print publication before it ceases operation.
And while everyone claims radio is dying, people can’t get enough of Serial and a slew of other podcasts as part of some radio renaissance.
Could it be that people consume, and maybe buy, stuff they like? Could it be that the mediums themselves aren’t dying, but the kinds of content that historically been published over them is dying?
Could it be that people love TV just as much as they always have because there are great high-quality shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead? Could it be no one watches or reads the news anymore because it’s really lousy?
Could it be that printed publications do just fine when they’re actually giving people something worth reading in that medium? That maybe if all you have is a really great book it’s worth reading in whatever medium is suitable for reading long pieces of text?
I don’t know, I’m just a dipshit millennial too busy thinking about and “liking” brands to figure it out.
