Inspired by Vanity Fair: M-M 2:0

Had to give up on this one when I misplaced my copy. Seriously. It had some very clever stuff in it, but so hard to find!


This issue of ours will tail along with the current (March) issue of Vanity Fair. Since it'll be March soon, VF in their wisdom had very little in its "Annual Hollywood Issue", neither preview nor recap. Clever fellows--after all, they own Oscar Night in Hollywood.

More grist for the emill, they might say (except I just did, first).

This issue lives up to whatever is promised by being a "Collector's Edition"--perhaps just because as it says, after the dot, "Our Biggest Issue Ever!" And thus, the biggest issue for any NY mag not purely a fashion book, or something. Who cares? The point is, this issue delivers.

From the viewpoint of our Common-sense Consumer, the Real Question is whether subscription to this, the most elevated of gossip magazines, makes sense. This one's $4.95, and all those cards that drop out from inside the issue offer "12 Issues, $15". Thus, if there were anything more than three decent (news-stand-price-worthy) issues in a year, subscription would be valuable. It should be a slam dunk.

Thing is, it's not. VF produces a high percentage of totally worthless rag content. They'll milk this issue (and the Oscar-night Morton's party) for three months of throwaway effort.

Compared to them, our Mid-Monthly performance last year, with 7 legitimate submissions (OK, somewhere between 4 and 6) is a much better deal. Even if the timing was a bit erratic.

The first 121 pages of the VF Collector's Edition issue of March, 2007
29 pages of Ads to start out, for VF, is hardly excessive. Notable Scarlett, Angie.
one page of the table of contents
15 pages of ads
one more page of table of contents
19 pages of ads
third page of table of contents
8 pages of Calvin jeans ads
1 page of Vanity Fair auto-promotion
20 pages of ads
1 more page of VF auto-promotion
5 pages of ads
Vanity Fair's masthead (page number 102 by both our counts)
4 pages of ads
1 more page of VF auto-promotion
a mere 2 pages of ads
a second masthead page--this one corporate
12 pages of ads

What's to say of all this? It's so socially useful, it actually keeps the money flowing. Kate Moss count down (finally!) from previous months. I detect a healthy trend toward using offbeat celebrities, rather than models, as mannequins. Good on you.

Graydon Carter's intro to the issue (page 122):
This guy, who's become a celebrity as the impresario of Oscar night, is an editor who leaves his point of view out there for all to see. Here he points out how this issue goes deep into both worlds--"real and reel". He's got a point, but the virtual/fantasy/entertainment/sports/gossip world of deeds that are not real has breadth that goes far beyond movies. This consensual hallucination universe now rivals the dream world and the real world for compelling story lines, excitement, and share of audience attention span. These three spheres of mutual lack of influence govern our lives in the 21st century.

25 pages more of ads, mixed in with three pages of profiles of this month's Contributors

The Big Shoot--Annie Leibovitz talking about making her VF cover--three pages of that, mixed with one more page of other VF self-promotion and 20 pages more of ads

page 174--Letters to the editor (six pages) mixed with 17 pages of ads. As I suggested, the last issue was a weak one, so the letters are pretty uninspired. It seems they get a lot, though, every month.

FanFair--31 days in the life of the culture--also 31 pages. Of which, 17 pages of ads. Most notable the Dior j'adore perfume ad in which Charlize Theron is pulling down (!) her strapless dress and apparently taking off her right dangly earring. The most important pages in this section are always Hot Type and Hot Tracks, which feature one-sentence reviews of dozens of new books and recordings. It's way too much, but it can give a tipoff to something new you might want, and tons of grist for the emills. The rest of FanFair is basically fluff, but with a nice portrait under "Beauty" of beautiful Aerin Lauder, and the "Planetarium" horoscope section is worth scanning for the portraits of celebrities (always different, always trendy ones) it shows under each sign.

page 220--James Wolcott. Finally, the issue, this one, seriously begins.