Profits before prophets: The threat to our secular state
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There’s been a lot written recently about the death of magazines in SA, with so many titles closing down. One person on my social media timeline even posted a pic of empty shelves at her supermarket, lamenting that they used to be full of magazines but are now just gaping holes in the tapestry that paints life’s meaning. She might have been talking about shopping, but I think she meant that so many diverse voices — voices that brought colour and context to her existence — have been shut down.
So imagine my surprise, as they say in self-published classics, when I found that the magazine aisle at my local Woolworths is still chock-a-block with brightly coloured magazines. How have these magazines survived, when long-running, big titles couldn’t?
Taking a closer look, it seems the mags with ugly covers have flourished. In the many media training sessions I take part in, nobody ever says: "Make sure you employ a really bad designer, and make your covers look like an inept collage project put together by a six-year-old who loves unicorns and pastel sweeties."
A grievous mistake on the trainer’s part, I feel.
Subject matter also seems to matter (I guess the clue is in the name). Apparently people still love to read about animals, food, the lives of our ex-colonial (and evidently much missed) royal overlords, celebrity shenanigans and God, with a significant crossover in the "God as celebrity" category.
Looking more closely, I was struck by a magazine called Joy. At first, given the startlingly white teeth that dominate the cover, I assumed it was a trade publication for the dental industry. A closer look, and I realised it is a Christian publication, denomination uncertain.
A large photo on the cover of a beaming, avuncular, silvery-haired man with the headline, "Spectacular ORGANS of the World", meant it was almost certainly not Catholic. Those days of sniggering in-jokes are over for our good fathers.
No, it appears to be one of those God (Pty) Ltd-type denominations.
Counting roughly, on the 80-plus pages of Joy there are about 20 requests for your money in exchange for Christian services.
Technological progress has meant that thoughts and prayers and apps can now drive your interaction with God. There are two ads — including a full back page — for a donations app called the Cheerful Givers, with the tagline: "FINALLY available in SA, ...
So imagine my surprise, as they say in self-published classics, when I found that the magazine aisle at my local Woolworths is still chock-a-block with brightly coloured magazines. How have these magazines survived, when long-running, big titles couldn’t?
Taking a closer look, it seems the mags with ugly covers have flourished. In the many media training sessions I take part in, nobody ever says: "Make sure you employ a really bad designer, and make your covers look like an inept collage project put together by a six-year-old who loves unicorns and pastel sweeties."
A grievous mistake on the trainer’s part, I feel.
Subject matter also seems to matter (I guess the clue is in the name). Apparently people still love to read about animals, food, the lives of our ex-colonial (and evidently much missed) royal overlords, celebrity shenanigans and God, with a significant crossover in the "God as celebrity" category.
Looking more closely, I was struck by a magazine called Joy. At first, given the startlingly white teeth that dominate the cover, I assumed it was a trade publication for the dental industry. A closer look, and I realised it is a Christian publication, denomination uncertain.
A large photo on the cover of a beaming, avuncular, silvery-haired man with the headline, "Spectacular ORGANS of the World", meant it was almost certainly not Catholic. Those days of sniggering in-jokes are over for our good fathers.
No, it appears to be one of those God (Pty) Ltd-type denominations.
Counting roughly, on the 80-plus pages of Joy there are about 20 requests for your money in exchange for Christian services.
Technological progress has meant that thoughts and prayers and apps can now drive your interaction with God. There are two ads — including a full back page — for a donations app called the Cheerful Givers, with the tagline: "FINALLY available in SA, ...