Thursday, March 12, 2009

Best Life Dies

Rodale has killed Best Life magazine, a spinoff of Men's Health. (Really.)

Personally, I never saw the point to Best Life, beyond filling a business need by the publisher. But it did fill that niche for a few years, and last year it racked up impressive advertising increases. But for me -- eh. The magazine never seemed to do much on the newsstands. What does it have that Esquire, GQ, Playboy, and others don't already do?

And the cover lines? For heaven's sake. "Be a (Much) Better Father" and "Be a (Much) Better Man" and "Elegance Made Easy" and "The Best Drink in the World" -- this looks like the most conference-roomed editorial lineup around. Prepackaged and designed to hit the right newsstand sales tropes. All of which means it might have been a well-designed and written magazine (I dunno; was never interested enough to buy what looked like a personality-less magazine), but it's a second buy, not a must-buy for readers. Who identifies with a catalog?

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