Monday, October 3, 2016

Why is TV Guide magazine still around?

Every year I purchase TV Guide magazine’s Fall Preview issue. And every year, it gets harder and harder to find at retail.
This year, I looked for the annual issue at Barnes & Noble, CVS and Wal-Mart and struck out. I ended up buying it from someone through Amazon.com. In previous years, I’ve had to buy the issue on eBay.
I have every TV Guide Fall Preview issue going back to 1976. That’s 40 years’ worth of TV history. But one year, maybe next, there won’t be a print edition of TV Guide any more. It really doesn't make sense to print TV Guide in the internet age.
This year’s edition, dated Sept. 19-25, feels pretty slight compared with Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Preview edition, dated Sept. 16-23. The TV Guide edition is 96 pages vs. 136 for EW.
One of my biggest disappointments with the TV Guide Fall Preview is that the magazine no longer sticks its neck out and labels its favorite shows for the new season.
It’s fun to look back at issues from past years and see which hit shows TV Guide completely missed and which shows it loved that lasted less than one season.
As of June 30, TV Guide reported 1.51 million paid subscriptions. That compares with 1.66 million a year earlier and 1.78 million in mid-2014.

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