Am I weird for subscribing to print newsmagazines? I have been a happy TIME magazine subscriber since I was 13 years old.. And recently started getting THE WEEK at my doorstep. I’m so 2000 and late.. Partying like it’s 1999 thinking print still matters. But to hold a magazine in the hand—smell the pages as they turn. Now that’s news to use..

Slow motion history set to repeat itself

20 years ago this month, the entire nation was fixated on a slow motion drama that played out on LA freeways.. OJ Simpson was evading the law in a white bronco .. eventually police arrested him, and the rest of the story played out, ending with an innocent verdict for the murder of his wife and her friend..

It was pre internet but it was huge. All TV networks joined in the live footage as it played out. CNN is offering up a few things of surprising note about the OJ ‘chase’..

I remember a few things.. I was 14 years old.. I was eating a large DEVITO’S Italian Eatery Sicilian pizza (sadly the Ashland PA restaurant has since closed) and I was watching like the rest of America to the drama as it played out.. Not being much of a sports enthusiast at that age, I just recall the sadness knowing that my favorite goofy cop from the NAKED GUN movies may have been a murderer..

Now all these years later.. CNN is beginning a good year’s worth of ‘20 years later’ coverage of this event.

I just remember how much the nation was gripped by this story.. Television sets were brought into workplaces and schools during the trial, families were torn apart in anger over whether he was guilty.. and race became an issue when TIME magazine chose to darken OJ’s face as opposed to the NEWSWEEK real version.

Back when print mattered.
Back before the net.
And before Marcia Clark’s facelift.

Those were the days..

It's over: NEWSWEEK goes digital

After 80 years NEWSWEEK as a printed magazine will cease to exist.. December 31 is the final issue. After that all digital is the new NEWSEEEK norm.

Whether people know it or not the more old fashioned print dies away the more we will lose out in the end.. The idea of sitting back and relaxing each week with a magazine or newspaper is going to be something gone and mourned when it is..

Has anyone thought about the crisis doctors and dentists face? No print? What will they put in their waiting rooms?! Maybe they’ll just leave what they have their now: HIGHLIGHTS for kids from 1989 and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED with the victory of the Boston Red Sox on the cover…

Who killed print? The readers or the printers?

Who will miss it? Maybe everyone more than we know..

It's over: NEWSWEEK goes digital

Print is dead. Here is proof.

I recall when I was a young teenage kid. I had subscriptions to US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, TIME MAGAZINE, AND NEWSWEEK. It was exciting to get them in the mail.. Read them.. know the news.

And yes, I repeat, when I was a teenage kid.

There are two points of curiosity, perhaps, for you. First off, it may be strange for a teenage kid to enjoy getting news magazines in the mail, and secondly, based on today’s news, it’s strange to get news magazines in the mail at all!

As a matter of fact, magazine sales at US newsstands are stale.
SNOOZEWEEK. LIME MAG. US SNOOZE (already gone).. and lots more leaving us by the day.
Magazine was once the king. Print was in. And now it’s thin.. going by the wayside in the age of the digital culture, where nothing is on paper but.. most people still print it anyway!

So what magazines are doing worst? Well, pretty much every one of them.
Here is the full list. If you’re in the print biz you’ll read and weep—and maybe tweet ..
COSMO is doing pretty awful.. Almost 16% drop since ‘11.
WOMAN’S WORLD.. not read..
People? No people read it..
FAMILY CIRCLE? A circle jerk ..
Even the NATIONAL ENQUIRER down.. maybe people are shopping less?

MEN’S HEALTH.. WEIGHT WATCHERS.. GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. Read it and sleep.

VOGUE, VANITY FAIR.. And SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE—you know, the magazine that kids used to pick up for some raunchy sex tips for teens. Now kids can see it all online, no holds barred. All bare skin from screen to screen. And touchscreen to WIFI and back again.

Yes, I was certainly a boring kid, reading those old print magazine. Relics of the past. The 20th century is dead. Print is dead.

But what else dies with it?

Covers like this, from 1999:

Where is James Vanderbeek now!?

Some doctor’s office or dentist office in Des Moines, collecting dust as time passes by ever so quickly.