Say 'Goodbye' to Jane Magazine

I was a subscriber to Jane magazine a mere three years out of the ten that they had been in publication. Their August of 2007 issue was their final issue and I was something short of devastated upon hearing this news. I was first attracted to Jane because of their no frills articles, covers and stories. Jane found a way, in the midst of all of the bubbly women’s magazines out there, to be more down-to-earth by mixing fashion trends with politics, world events, and real life stories. Jane barely changed in the ten years in which they were putting out magazines (with an exception to the last two years which they were working under a different editor). Their first issue made its debut in September of 1997. In the time since announcing their retirement, the cover of their first issue (displaying an ecstatic Drew Barrymore) has been posted everywhere.

When I look at the very first Jane cover I notice that their layout did not change much. That was part of what attracted me to their magazine. Their covers are not splashed with coverlines that scream “Top Ten Ways to Please Your Man” or “Fastest Weight Loss Tricks”. Instead the writers of Jane tackled just about every other topic that is or ever has been important to women. More often than not, their covers leaned more towards the plain side. Most would have a completely white background and the face of their chosen cover model, sprinkled with a few coverlines to highlight the contents of their issue. They were not covered in overdone, flashy, electric colors with a model that has an abundance of makeup and head of overdone hair. The covers were, for the most part, pretty basic.

In the years that I read Jane magazine I was introduced to the types of articles that I find most interesting. Jane would feature articles about women who survived cancer, and also those about women who lost friends to cancer. They would have articles about refugees and political movements. The most attractive thing about Jane magazine is that they had a way of touching on all of the typical articles of a woman’s magazine without being obnoxious about it, and then went the extra mile in covering more serious issues.

In addition to all of their good-doing, Jane was extremely well known for their off-beat sense of humor and quirky articles. They were anything but boring or mundane and they found a unique way of catering to and attracting an audience of readers composed of the kind of women who could not stand reading Cosmopolitan.

One of the possible reasons for the end of Jane magazine could be that it was not publicized enough. Sure, it was around for a long time so it must have had a large group of established and loyal subscribers, but for some reason it never reached the commercial height that other women’s magazines reached(magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Allure, Glamour and Shape). In an article written by Rachel Leibrock for the Detroit Free Press, Andi Zeisler, the editorial director for the feminist magazine Bitch was quoted as saying, “A lot of readers were in the dark about Jane. It existed in a black hole between being alternative and mainstream.”

The same article also points out that Jane Pratt, the founding editor of Jane magazine, left the company in 2005. In the two years after Jane Pratt left, Jane became more commercial and slowly turned away from its original intent and direction.

According to the New York Post, “Editors at Jane magazine had to cancel a "Guide to Boobs" after asking female colleagues to anonymously bare their breasts for photographers, but then carelessly divulging their identities in a mass e-mail.”

Whatever the reason for the end of Jane magazine, on July 9^th of this year Reuters announced that Conde Nast officially decided to end Jane’s ten year run. Even though I had already stopped subscribing to the magazine around the time of the editor switch in 2005, I appreciated the variety that Jane provided my eyes and mind with when I browse through the magazine rack. And I am sure I'm not alone when I say the magazine rack won't be the same without Jane.