
Rolling Stone magazine unveiled plans on Monday for a major design overhaul, scaling down its signature large-format pages to a standard magazine size in a bid to bolster advertising and sagging newsstand sales.
The U.S. pop culture magazine will end the oversized look that for more than 30 years has distinguished it from rival publications starting with an issue set to hit newsstands on October 17.
From a retailing point of view, this makes sense. I can see how difficult it could be to display an oversized magazine compared to the overwhelming number of competitors of standard size. Rolling Stone, like Billboard, usually is regulated to the back of the magazine rack due to its size... and that means the cover is not as visible.
With this change, I hope the mag is displayed in more prominent racks.
My fear, though... is that this change will be accompanied by an editorial shift... turning Rolling Stone into another Entertainment Weekly. The magazine already has caused me grief... by featuring the Jonas Brothers on the cover.
The Jonas Brothers!?!?!? Are you f*$@king kidding me? On Rolling Stone? I thought someone was trying to mail me the latest Tiger Beat!
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