Time Inc. – Mine Magazine – first issue – review
Time Inc.’s Mine Magazine was initially touted as a groundbreaking new concept in print media which allowed subscribers the ability to customize the content of their magazine. Well, I just received the first issue of Mine and I have to say that I’m completely underwhelmed. Yes, I understand that this is a trial run but from the looks of it, this is not going to work. There are only a total of 36 pages and the majority of the pages are taken up by graphics, logos and of course advertisements which in this case are from Lexus.
The content is made up of previously run articles from Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf and Travel + Leisure. As a subscriber, we had to choose five of those magazines and then fill out a questionaire so that the advertisers could “personalize” the ads according to our preferences and where we lived. The “personalized” ads ended up in this case more like “mad libs” where your name and location were inserted into the Lexus ads. Yeah, impressive, right? *yawn* oh, and apparently there was a glitch during the printing of the first issue. Time Inc. apparently didn’t print out the correct versions of the magazine for some of their subscribers (including me). For instance, I remember listing Food & Wine as one of my five, but Golf appears as one of my selections instead. But my main complaint is *content*. If there aren’t any interesting articles in the magazine, there really isn’t a need for me to read it, is there? OK, OK, if Time Inc. included the SI swimsuit pictorial in my issue I probably wouldn’t be complaining so much BUT they didn’t.
retroGrade: D
Related posts:
yup, I got the issue this week as well. To Me, Mine Mag is like a Lexus SUV brochure with some random magazine articles mixed in together. Not very well thought out in my opinion. just another advertising outlet, nothing more. sad that Time Inc. had to get roped into this whole thing.
you know, they should place a sub heading that quotes Kate Gosselin – “Mine, all mine! as far as I can see…”
it’s definitely not the most creative name for a magazine. it’s something that a toddler says about his toys. MINE!, MINE!, MINE!
I’m not sure why they felt the need for this change. I get the concept they are passing off by personalizing it and naming it “mine” but if as you said it is mostly personalized ads, doesn’t sound very interesting. Mad libs, whoo hooo, how exciting…lol …you can be the star of the ad or in your own mind…heh
Maybe I’m old fashioned but sometimes I just think original is best to stick with and maybe just spice it up and give more options and modernize it up a bit to gain new subscribers or maybe I don’t have a clue…
yep, probably the latter.
Are they replacing Time magazine with this or is this something different? Like some sort of extension?
Dan said: “But my main complaint is *content*. If there aren’t any interesting articles in the magazine, there really isn’t a need for me to read it, is there? OK, OK, if Time Inc. included the SI swimsuit pictorial in my issue I probably wouldn’t be complaining so much BUT they didn’t.”
Aha…swimsuit pictorial would have sold ya, they could have skipped the rest, huh?…
See, they need to stick with the original and just give more interesting options for people to choose from. imo. Sounds like someone didn’t do their research.
Mag Man, Just curious as to how they got roped into this?
Yep, I like the idea of a sub heading with Kate quoted as saying, “MINE, ALL MINE! AS FAR AS I CAN SEE…”
MINE, MINE, MINE! Hilarious!
Kate’s ever famous quote…haha…and exactly what a child who doesn’t want to share would say. bleh!
What a waste, a Lexus, commercial you have to pay for…Deep sigh…..Rolling eyes……Shaking head. The car industry is in rough shape right now but this probably will not do much to correct things.
Swimsuits would have moved it up a notch for the guys. If they threw a few hot fellas in there I might have even minused a head shake or an eye roll…
currently the mag is just an “experiment” with a run of five or six issues. and the issues are free to subscribers of the trial. I don’t know what will happen after the first six issues. My guess is that it’ll be discontinued.
oh and Jen, what Mag Man was referring to was the fact that Lexus pitched the idea for the magazine to Time Inc, and they agreed to the concept.
At least it’s a free Lexus pictorial commercial…lol
oh ok, thanks Dan. So Lexus pitched the idea, gotcha.
LOL Nina, yep throw in a few nicely toned guys into the mix and could be interesting for me too…they can start with Hugh…yummmmm!
OK, Jen – since you keep on mentioning Hugh Jackman in your comments, I’ll take a moment to list a couple of my own celeb crushes. uummm, you know, just in case the editors of Mine Magazine want to improve their content.
Scarlett Johansson, Naomi Watts, Kate Beckinsale and Jennifer Connelly.
:inlove:
LOL…Dan…Good
I think I’ll add Clooney to the mix too
and although Tom Selleck has aged and rather well I might add, don’t see much of him anymore but He’s a classic none the less.
Come on ladies, you got any favorites to spice this mag. up?
Clooney is goooooood! I can’t remember the actors name but he played Luka in ER……OMG that man is hot!!!
He has to go on that list. I loved Noah Whiley who played one of the other Docs but Luka made my knees a bit weak….