In a wave of magazines ceasing publication of late, Jane magazine is the next to close its pages for the last time, with its final issue to be published in August.
Jane was designed to appeal to women who are irreverent, and “delivered the second-wave feminist editorial mission of Sassy”, Jane’s little sister, which folded in 1994.
It seems that despite strong support and loyalty for feminist magazines, these do not do as well in the commercial marketplace as the more mainstream women’s fashion and lifestyle magazines.
I have never read a copy of Jane or Sassy, but I suspect they both suffered editorially from the departure of founding editor Jane Pratt. Having a look at the Jane website before it too disappears from view, I struggle to find evidence of any feminist content. Instead, I find the same focus on beauty, sex and celebrity I would expect to find in an issue of Cosmo.
So even though the publishers tried to appeal to the masses, and conform to the demands of the advertisers, it was still not enough to save Jane.
Where does that leave the rest of us alternative, feminist, non-conformist magazines?
(image from Do Not Be Quiet)
I am so sad about Jane folding. Jane and ElleGirl were my two favorite magazines, and they are both gone – forever.
Now Lip is my favorite mag! Too bad you guys are so far away, in Australia.
The threat of being killed off by the larger magazines is often something I think about. Last year, the Australian teen girls’ magazine Chik shut down after several facelifts and conformity to be more like the mainstream mags. Although Chik was moving in the direction of Dolly and Girlfriend in being obsessed with cosmetics, fashion, boys and celebrities, they had a wonderful flair of imagination and originality. They used to have great articles like “how to change a tyre”, “how to rule the world” and so on. I was completely heartbroken when they shut down. They were one of the only individual, independent voices in such a bland and ditzy magazine world. It’s sad Jane has had to suffer the same fate.
Jane isn’t really all that feminist…
Jane was never considered a feminist magazine. In fact Jane was routinely (and obsessively) criticised by the likes of Bitch and Feministing. The demise of Jane has nothing to do with feminist publications, including the much loved Sassy. If anything we should feel secure that women are making better choices in their reading material.
As I mentioned, I’ve never actually seen a copy of Jane – but it appeared to have been pitched as Sassy’s big sister with a similar ethos. Clearly not – and thanks to Tiara for the link to the Bitch post.
My point is, there are a lot of magazines folding of late – there is a whole website dedicated to the death of magazines. And it’s certainly not short of content.
So when a commercial mag such as Jane can’t survive, how does one such as lip, who refuses to sell out, stay afloat in such a fickle environment?