Subscribers Forced From Class to Crass

A short while back I was searching for something to supplement the pop-culture goodness I received from Entertainment Weekly. I wanted to expand on my knowledge without having to resort to a $1,000 Variety subscription. I was overjoyed to discover Premiere Magazine.

Finally a magazine other than EW which actually devoted space to in-depth coverage of movies. Not only that but it gave detailed reports on upcoming projects as well as focusing on indie films other magazines wouldn't touch.

I resigned myself to only enjoying this golden nugget of film knowledge once a month. Yet little did I know that a terror so unholy would befall me and 434,999 other subscribers.


I received a letter in the mail from Premiere. Hoping that it was a chance to renew for a long period at a cheaper price I ripped open the letter with unbridled enthusiasm. After reading the letter I was horrified of what was to come.

The letter stated that Premiere Magazine would cease to exist. But luckily they did not fail their loyal readers. Instead of ending up with nothing the subscribers would receive their remainder number of issues through US Weekly. That's right. The rag that makes People Magazine look like the New Yorker.

So, for instance, instead of an inside look at the films and filmmakers of Sundance I was treated to a closeup of Kate Bosworth's miraculous weight change from 95 to 110 pounds!!

Was this what I was seeking all along? Perhaps the void I felt was not the quest to know everything about films, but the need to know just how many different men Britney has screwed since kissing K-Fed goodbye.

Of course I couldn't be more disgusted. And apparently I am not alone. Premiere's web boards have been inundated with comments from subscribers like myself. So what exactly did happen? Apparently it is a fairly common practice in the publication world. A magazine is about to go under and in order to salvage whatever they can they sell their subscriber list to a competing magazine. In this particular case Jann Wenner of US Weekly bought the subscribers to boost his magazines regular circulation to around 1.8 million subscribers. He had to do this to secure his rate base for advertisers.

In the end the usual people get screwed, the consumers. In this case they are mostly sophisticated film lovers such as ourselves. People who craved something more than the basic drivel shoved into the mouths of the populace. All I can say is that if anyone ever even thinks of trying this with EW they can expect a march on the publisher's headquarters!