MAGAZINE CONT:
zine pullback. Of the 27 magazines on Ad Age's list, roughly one-quarter of the abandoned titles were brand
extensions. In the past year, Condé Nast killed Men's Vogue as a stand-alone title, and plans for Vogue Living
have been put on ice. Time Inc. pulled the plug on SI Latino, while Hearst yanked O at Home and Cosmo Girl.
Last Friday, Jann Wenner's Media announced it was delaying the launch of a quarterly fashion magazine, Us
Style.
Largely, these magazines never caught on with readers. And it's not surprising. Magazines are emotional prod-
ucts. They are objects of aspiration, passion, and desire. No one needs to read magazines, but millions of read-
ers still subscribe to their favorite titles because they harbor deep connections to the glossy pages. As one vet-
eran editor once explained to me, the best magazines make you feel like tearing open the plastic wrap the sec-
ond that they arrive in your mailbox and curling up on the couch with them, ignoring whatever plans you had
for the evening.
Which is why the current downturn can be good for publishers. Magazines still offer an unsurpassed ability to
marry literary ambitions with deep reporting, photography, and visual design. In this new media age, people
talk about the importance of transforming readers into "communities." Magazines have never had a community
problem. Great magazines have built enduring relationships with their readers that Facebook and Tumblr still
aspire to. But in a race to grow their businesses, publishers put advertising first and editorial excellence sec-
ond.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course. In 1974, Time Inc. spun off People magazine as a standalone title
from Time, launching the modern era of celebrity journalism and creating a title that generates $1.5 billion in
annual advertising revenue. More recently, in 2005 Condé Nast launched Domino, its hip shelter title. When
the company announced earlier this year that it was closing the title amidst the worst housing slump since the
1930s, my girlfriend and her friends mourned the decision along with thousands of its devoted readers. Al-
though Domino couldn't succeed financially in this climate, its knowing-but-friendly approach to home design
gave readers the sense that the magazine was created expressly for. them and not to service ad buyers.
Magazines still retain emotional capital, and publishers need to remember that they're not in the advertising-
delivery business. If a magazine can speak directly to the reader, advertising dollars will follow. Titles
Is America about to go broke?
Government obligations for Social Security and Medicare may soon exceed the combined net worth of every household and nonprofit organi-
zation in the country.

By JACK WILSON

Prices dropped last year. But we still need to invest to protect ourselves from inflation. That's why our retirement-plan investing needs an
inflation "tilt." You'll understand why in a few paragraphs. How bad will future inflation be? I don't know. Neither does anyone else. It could
be a normal inflation of 3% to 4% a year. It could also be a banana-republic 10% a month.What we know is that all governments make
promises they can't fulfill. Our government certainly has. Under both political parties, it has taken promise making to a high art. This is not
hyperbole. The figures can be found in regularly published government reports.

Much worse than you probably think
The figures exist, but they are ignored. News reports regularly inform us of the growing federal deficit, projected at a stunning $1.75 trillion
for fiscal 2009 and $1.17 trillion for 2010. But regularly reported, less visible government obligations have been growing much faster. In the
four years from January 2004 to January 2008, the Medicare trustees reported that the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare
grew by a stunning $10.4 trillion. The average annual growth topped $2.5 trillion.
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