Which city magazine best captures its city's personality? (live, state, rates)
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Those of you who have encountered me on these forums probably know by now that I work on the staff of the pioneer of the city magazine genre.
That's right, pioneer: two years before Clay Felker took the fading New York Herald Tribune's Sunday magazine and turned it into a freestanding, lively publication that approached the Big Apple with a verve and a breadth The New Yorker didn't, a fellow named David Herbert Lipson had transformed a somewhat staid Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce promotional rag into a smart and scrappy publication that covered the city's people and politics with addytood.
In the wake of Philadelphia and New York, magazines devoted to lifestyle and current events sprouted in cities all over the country. The best of them, like Texas Monthly (yes, it counts, even though its "city" is an entire state), have changed the way the people in their coverage area look at it, and even the most mediocre will tell you where the "best of" everything in their city could be found. ("Best of" issues also originated with Philadelphia; the lobby of our offices on Independence Square is decorated with a graphic mural that includes the opening sentence of our very first "Best and Worst of Philly" issue more than 40 years ago: "God couldn't be here tonight, so we've taken the liberty of filling in for Him.")
There's even a trade group for these publications, the City and Regional Magazine Association. And it seems that as journalism in general is undergoing wrenching changes that are laying waste to newsrooms and even entire newspapers all over the land, the city and regional magazjnes are managing to hold their own.
There does seem to be a hierarchy of these, though: I note that the mag I write for seems to get a steady stream of hires who come here from the Washingtonian, another city mag I would put at the top of the heap.
But what I'd like to know is: Which of these magazines do you think captures the flavor of the cities/regions they serve best? I've listed about 20 or so of the best-known below; you can vote for as many as you think deserve a vote. Then explain what it is about them that you think puts them above the crowd.
Don't read or aren't familiar with your city's magazine, or any of them? Feel free to comment on why that's the case. The knock on Philadelphia within the region is that it seems aimed more at Main Liners than at city residents.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 01-07-2020 at 04:45 AM..
Its regular feature "One of our fifty is missing" perfectly encapsulates the constant overlooking and ignorance when it comes to all things New Mexico, even the fact that it's a state at all.
Yesterday was New Mexico's birthday, the 108th anniversary of being admitted into the Union as a state.
Albuquerque the Magazine is the current city magazine and is slick and sells well, but Albuquerque Monthly was much more intellectual and interesting, it unfortunately folded 16 years ago.
Santa Fean is a great city magazine that is as beautifully put together, sophisticated and polished as the city itself. Unfortunately, its time may be coming to an end.
Cleveland Magazine annually rates the suburbs. The contents of this issue largely isn't available on online, but is available at libraries. It's invaluable for new or prospective residents, so it generates a lot of new subscriptions/single issue purchases. Do other city magazines attempt this task, or is it too overwhelming in larger metropolitan areas? It's amusing how the top 10 suburbs and their relative ratings change each year (why did Rocky River fall from one in 2018 to four in 2019?). And, in my memory, Cleveland's most exclusive suburb -- Hunting Valley -- never is rated, likely because of the price of housing there and its very limited availability.
"Best of" Cleveland features, from dentists to restaurants, is another staple annual feature.
Most expensive homes in northeast Ohio is another frequent feature. Compared with other cities, it's amazing how inexpensive top-end housing is in northeast Ohio, especially per acre & per square foot.
What I've enjoyed over the years, are articles such as the "Icons of Cleveland," even though it doesn't directly list the Terminal Tower, which is discussed under "Iconic Cleveland." The Terminal Tower certainly rivals the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as Cleveland's top architectural icon, especially from an historical perspective having soared over Public Square for almost a century. Many Clevelanders who never read this article don't possess much of this knowledge.
IMO, Severance Hall, Cleveland's "Taj Mahal," ranks well above several of the top 20 Cleveland icons selected by Cleveland Magazine, definitely demonstrating Cleveland Magazine's limitations.
Unless we've all read all of these magazines, how would we know? This is going to turn into another homer thread.
We get several of them at the Phillymag offices, and I have perused some of them. I second Katarina Witt's assessment of 5280.
The first one I was exposed to was our sister publication, Boston, when I landed in that city for college. There's a "Worst" that mag ran that still sticks in my memory, about Brigham's clam chowder.
Then, in college, I also became familiar with Texas Monthly for reasons I don't quite remember. I still think it may well be the best mag of the genre, though the one I work for gives it a run for its money. D Magazine and Los Angeles both do some really solid reporting (I picked up some real estate ideas from the latter), while Houstonia strikes me as rather middle-of-the-road.
And New York, like its antecedent, has become a national brand of sorts, especially its culture section, "Vulture," and its news section, "Intelligencer," both of which have a national audience online. (I think its style section, whose name escapes me now, ditto.)
But yes, I'm an outlier, as I work in the biz. Most of us will probably only be familiar with their own city magazines. But I'd still like to hear why they think they're worth reading.
Well, the Onion was started in Madison, and I think it captured that city pretty well.
LOL at the onion. Pleeeese don't lessen Madison WI with the onion. It's a great College town like another I love called State College PA. I got burned the first time I posted from the onion...... not knowing it is what it is. The real fake news.
It lessens Madison IMO and not a magazine again. IMO. Madison WI is NO FAKE CITY. .
LOL at the onion. Pleeeese don't lessen Madison WI with the onion. It's a great College town like another I love called State College PA. I got burned the first time I posted from the onion...... not knowing it is what it is. The real fake news.
It lessens Madison IMO and not a magazine again. IMO. Madison WI is NO FAKE CITY. .
Your're being facetious right....... gotta be.
Madison is a great city, with a great university. The Onion's humor is appreciated by many, misunderstood by some, and overall, wildly successful. Not shading Madison here, at all.
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What are the staples of these magazines?
It's a great College town like another I love called State College PA. I got burned the first time I posted from the onion...... not knowing it is what it is. The real fake news. 
. 
