Magazine Graveyard
Some magazines come to a tragic, premature end. Others linger well past their shelf life. Here are some demised periodicals that, whether revered or reviled, aren’t likely to be forgotten soon.
Top 20 Dead Magazines:
- Weekly World News (1979 – 2007) – Best known for its outlandish cover stories, the debate still rages on as to whether this tabloid was intended to be satire or taken seriously. WWN may be gone, but Bat Boy will forever be a part of us.
- LIFE (1936 – 2000) – This news magazine was best known for its photojournalism. It began as a weekly in 1936, became an intermittent “special” in 1972, and finally went monthly in 1978. Since its demise in 2000, LIFE has resurfaced as a newspaper supplement, a website, and a photo channel on Time.com.
- National Lampoon (1970 – 1998) – This groundbreaking humor magazine spun off of Harvard Lampoon in 1970, pushing the boundaries of the appropriate and acceptable with its parodies and surrealist content.
- Premiere (1987 – 2007) – A rather cerebral magazine devoted to the cinema, Premiere paid just as much attention to the screenwriters, directors, and industry insiders as it did the actors. The magazine actually spun off from the French magazine Première, which is still being published.
- Mademoiselle (1935 – 2001) – An influential women’s magazine, known for publishing short fiction from the likes of William Faulkner, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote.
- George (1995 – 2001) – Founded by Michael J. Berman and John F. Kennedy, Jr., this magazine was an attempt to breathe life into the stale political publications of the day. The tagline for George was “Not Just Politics as Usual,” and it made every attempt to make political news and discourse interesting. Sometimes, it even succeeded!
- Cracked (1958 – 2007) – Mad Magazine has spawned countless imitators, but few were quite as successful as Cracked. This humor magazine hit upon hard times in the 1990s, and attempted to reinvent itself as a men’s magazine in 2006, but eventually went under. It still lives on as a website at Cracked.com.
- McCall’s (1873 – 2002) – This popular women’s magazine published fiction by Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, and Kurt Vonnegut, and even featured a column penned by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt. Despite surviving the Great Depression and two world wars, the magazine couldn’t endure being purchased by Rosie O’Donnell (who changed it’s name to Rosie). It ceased publication in 2002.
- Film Threat (1985 – 1997) – This alternative publication began as a photocopied magazine in 1985, featuring a combination of pseudo-political ranting and cinematic articles (with a decided “punk rock attitude). The magazine was published by Larry Flynt from 1991 to 1996, and became a major competitor of Premiere. It ceased publication in 1997, although it continues to exist in online webzine format.
- YM (1932 – 2004) – This American teen magazine actually originated as two separate magazines in the 1930s–Compact and Calling All Girls. These two titles merged into Young Miss during the 1960s. The title changed to Young & Modern in the 1980s, and YM in 2000 (which was said to stand for Your Magazine). The title folded in 2004, which is apparently the year that teenagers gave up reading in favor of texting.
- Omni (1978 – 1995)
- U.S. News & World Report (1933 – 2010)
- Byte (1975 – 1998)
- CREEM (1969 – 1989)
- Starlog (1976 – 2009)
- Mirabella (1989 – 2000)
- PC/Computing (1988 – 2002)
- Circus (1966 – 2006)
- Spy (1986 – 1998)
- Mondo 2000 (1984 – 1998)
Do you have some favorite ones that we didn’t include in our list? Mention them in the comments below!