Country Weekly, again...

Friday, September 07, 2007

Quiet sometime ago, maybe 2 years now, I cancelled my long-term subsciption to Country Weekly. I got fed up with it. Well, this past week, I was standing in line and saw the cover mentioned a "special report" on country music fans and the incident with Tim McGraw on stage incident and also fan-stalkers and such.

I knew when I bought it, I would be disappointed, and here I go.

First of all, since Ive picked up an issue it has been physically trimmed down to the "normal" magazine size, instead of its old size. The paper weight is a bit heavier. The articles, if you can actually find them, are pretty decent, but nothing overly exciting or of great penmenship. The pictures are as they were before my cancellation. A couple good ones here and there, but then again mostly press stock photos that any media outlet can use (including my own site.)
Here are a few of my simple problems with Country Weekly:

• It takes 24 pages to make it to the first actual article. A 3/4 page article actually begins on page 25.
• Out of 72 pages, only about 11 pages have any substantive writing on it. If I'm going to be paying for a magazine, I informative, enjoyable, and substantive writings. Not a bunch of fluffy-pop quick written news bits. Give me a break! The articles that are in (the 11 pages,) are decent but again, no prize winners either.
• The actual "special report" really gave no detail or a real deep insight to the issue.

My major problem with this magazine is showcased nicely.

Their priorities are screwed up. Tim McGraw is on the cover. There is a couple sentence mini-paragraph about the Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees! The highest honor a country music can be given and one of the most important events of the year get a paragraph, barely.

Roy Clark, Merle Haggard both have articles in this edition. Thats awesome. I was thrilled to see that, but Roy Clark not mentioned on the front cover, Merle Haggard is, but barely in a small black box near the address label.

This is absurd! The Hall of Famers should be on the cover, major mention of Haggard, Clark, and give me newsworthy information in an professional-informative way. Until then, I will continue to do with out Country Weekly.

There needs to be a good, in-depth, and informative country music magazine. If I had the cash to get it going, I would! I know Country Weekly is a product of the popular country music sounds and is published by the same company that does the National Enquier and many other magazines. So, I can't blame them, really. However, there is a need for a major magazine for real country music fans that want in depth, hard core country music insight.