Chunky Chicks and wannabee Broads

The news this week is that Sports Illustrated is laying off writers and is about to shut down. Evidently revenues are dwarfed by expenses. There are many among us who believe that this is the result of self-inflicted wounds. From chunky chicks in bikinis to twice putting a transexual person on the cover of their annual swimsuit issue, they have overdosed on political correctness. Putting a transexual on the swimsuit issue cover once was kind of stupid. The second time that happened showed a total lack of knowledge about what your readers want to see. The last gasp of SI to attract the old guys who still read magazines was the Martha Stewart swimsuit edition cover. It was too little, too late. Sorry, Martha.

One of the biggest stories in sports, if you exclude Travis Kelce balling Taylor Swift, is men claiming to be women playing women's sports. This is the height of liberal stupidity. One might imagine that a magazine dedicated to reporting on sports would be all over this. You would be wrong. Go woke, go broke. Attention Sports Illustrated!! It's a sports magazine, not a journal of the DEI movement!  

In the last several days National Geographic announced that the magazine would no longer be available on newsstands. A few days earlier, Popular Science announced that they were ceasing production of their print issue and would be available only as an online magazine. 

I like to read magazines. I am talking about real magazines. A magazine is made of paper and has actual pages. Online magazines are just words on a computer screen. I want to hold a magazine in my hands to read it. I want to be able to carry it around and just open it and read. I don't want it on a phone, a laptop, on a tablet, or on some kind of reader. I want it on paper. I want to be able to make a note on a page. I want to fold over a corner to mark my place. I want to be able to read it while waiting in line at the drive thru at the bank or Hardee's. I want to tear a page out to "share" it. 

I read National Geographic when I was in school. I read it at the library because we couldn't afford magazine subscriptions. I am sorry to see the Geographic in a downhill spiral. 

Popular Science was not a regular read until I was in high school. I learned a lot from Popular Science, but I think that access to the Internet will ultimately put many magazines and newspapers out of business.

I was a subscriber to Popular Mechanics for most of the last 55 years. I started in high school and read it until June 16, 2020. That was when they published an article on their online site titled "How to topple a statue using Science". I heard about it and went online to see for myself. I read it and then I canceled my subscription and told them to keep that shit out of my mailbox.

Here's Popular Mechanics' description of the author of that piece. "James Stout, Ph.D. is a historian of anti-fascism in sport and runs a nonprofit that uses exercise to empower Indigenous people to live healthier and happier lives. He was born in the U.K. and lives in California." California is obviously some kind of magnet for crazies.

This is the issue. Publishers lose track of what their readers are buying the magazine to read. The Sports Illustrated cover with the transsexual is a perfect example. No guy is looking at that cover and showing it to his friends saying something like "Uh Huh! Gotta gets me some of that!" Does Popular Mechanics think that their readers are at some riot saying, "Let's check with Popular Mechanics on tips for tearing down this statue." Are you serious?  Memo to Popular Mechanics: Rioters don't read your magazine. They are into tearing things down, not building something.

Time to go find my old copy of Sports Illustrated with Sandy Koufax on the cover. Martha Stewart was in her twenties then. Maybe she's in an ad.