Bah Humbug!
Feeling slightly annoyed with Hearst Magazines, and also a bit cross with myself. I have said before how much I enjoy my annual subscription to Country Living, a gift from the in-laws. The December issue advertised something new
So last weekend, en route to Norfolk, when I stopped at a motorway services I bought it [£4.99] in WHSmith, as a weekend treat. The weekend was rather busy, and it was only this weekend I finally got round to looking inside.
As I flicked through the pages, I had this amazing sense of déja vu.
I leapt out of bed, and retrieved and older copy of CL from the bookshelf. December 2014
...same crafts...
...same recipes...
I just passed a boxful of old CL magazines to Marion, and I am sure that some of the other ideas came from my previous December issues now in Norfolk.
I am annoyed with CL. It's not new it's cut-and-paste
I have let them know that I think this is wrong. Other magazines I know [eg Real Simple, and Martha Stewart Living, in the USA] say things like "We have collected some of our most popular recipes and ideas and put them together in a special Christmas issue" - so you know what to expect.
I am also annoyed with myself for not checking through the magazine in the shop [it was 10pm, and I was concerned to get up to Cornerstones] As usual, it is a case of caveat emptor.
Wow, that's naughty of them.
ReplyDeleteI know there are only so many recipes and crafts to go around, but to use exactly the same article and pass it off as new takes the biscuit.
The other problem, Angela, is that the magazines from the same publisher also replicate the same projects in different publications. Towards Christmas, I buy some magazines for ideas and have been very disappointed by the replication this year. Often the magazines are sealed with a "free gift" and you can't see what you are buying. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI did exactly the same, all looked familiar. Have gone of CL, Landlove is much better.
ReplyDeleteThat is very poor. I have only flicked through mine so I hadn't noticed that.
ReplyDeleteI found exactly that same thing with a number of quilting magazines. The "special" issues are just a rehash of previous items.
ReplyDeleteThey do that here in Canada and the US also. I have not had a subscription or purchased a magazine for a long time. It became blatant around ten years ago, when I received the monthly subscription of a popular quilt magazine. I had, by coincidence taken out a few old ones looking for a certain pattern. That was when it went from just an inkling in my mind, they were doing this, to good gosh the whole magazine is identical to the older one. As the saying goes “everything old is “new” again”. Cheers from Canada
ReplyDeleteThey ought to be more careful about what they're putting out in print considering that a lot of people are going digital with their magazine subscriptions which could sound the deathknell to anything hardcopy(I don't subscribe to anything, I read mine at the library, being Scottish and therefore a cheapskate!!)
ReplyDeleteThat duplication is quite shocking! It is not like they left a significant interval before repeating, it is only 3 years! If it had been 8years, you might feel more sympathetic.
ReplyDeleteWhat a disappointment!
I hope you get a response from them as to why they would recycle something that they published just 3 years earlier and try to pass it off as "new"!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that that is very wrong!!! If someone else had lifted their photos and text and reused them, they would sue :( I suppose it is now "buyer beware" even with fine magazines and they are not cheap! Well, that is sad. The whole idea behind a magazine is that trends and styles change, and they must put out new issues each month because things change so much. Ha! I'm sorry about that for you. Nobody should get fooled into buying the same thing twice :(
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