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Notes -
Is the magazine business viable in 2026? On one hand, obviously no. Subscriptions to magazines have been falling continuously since like 1980 or something.
But on the other hand, maybe yes? Magazines used to be insanely profitable. There is an anecdote about Conde Nast employees in the 1990s getting mad because they were forced to fly first class to their Christmas party in London instead of taking the Concorde that they were used to. There's still some magazines like Architectural Digest which must be absolute cash cows if they can keep their costs under control.
In the modern era, it would be trivially easy to produce a decent magazine with a couple of full time staff. Get a few thousand subscribers and it might be viable. Would people buy a non-shitty version of Wired?
Oh man, I happened upon a 1999 Wired stuck in an old box of papers last weekend. The thing was so thick it had a spine and while visually bold had content for hours. The list price was $5.95 which inflation calculator tells me would be about $11.99 today. Seems steep for a magazine but probably worth it!
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