Yes, I am the one zillionth person to review the premiere issue of The much-hyped, much-buzzed Talk magazine. However, unlike many of the pundits who reviewed the first Talk, I actually read the whole dang thing from cover to cover. And, as an active zinester, I think I have a unique perspective on the situation.
My verdict? The condensed version: It's okay. Talk has some good stuff, but it's like literally dozens of other trendy glossies on the market. It contains oodles of hip writing, but little passion.
Oh, there are bright spots: a sharp cover, a few dramatic stories, and a few nice features. But balancing the good things were the usual annoyances in any glossy magazine today, including endless cigarette and "fashion" ads. In addition, for all of the pretensions to seriousness, there are insipid celebrity photos. Then there's the most telling sentence in the magazine (which I found on the subscription card): "Talk is a publication of Talk Magazine LLC, a joint venture of Hearst Communications, Inc. and Miramax Film Corp."
It's hard to feel much about Talk. Sure, it's an okay magazine, but There are dozens like it on the market. If Talk succeeds, it'll knock one or two other glossies off the racks for a while until the next ones come along. If Talk fails, it's a tax write-off for the Hearst/Miramax CEOs.
It's hard to feel much for a magazine that has hardly, if any, feeling or passion. Talk is so busy being hip with its clever writers turning clever phrases, in a package put together by clever art directors it forgets to give us a reason to care.
I relate it to Peanuts, one of my favorite comic strips as a kid. I Dug Snoopy, because he was cool. But I felt for Charlie Brown, because he was such a loser. You can't feel anything for the cool, hip people of the world. It's the flawed, imperfect, unhip people of the world, the Charlie Browns, who make us feel something.
That's why I love zines. With zines you gets lots of passion. You may not get fancy design, snazzy celebrity photos, or exclusive interviews (or any LLCs, for that matter). But you will get heart and soul. You will get all the rough-around-the-edges charm you can handle, but you will also get a real person writing about something they actually care enough about to go in debt for.
Zines are full of everything Talk will never have. Sure, there's some good reading in Talk, but nothing truly memorable. I still remember the first time I read Guinea Pig Zero, Crawfish!, Thrift SCORE, Have You Seen The Dog Lately?, or any of the countless zines that pour out their hearts, talents, and passion into every photocopied page.
So don't throw more money into the Hearst/Miramax deep pockets. Order a zine today and discover what the true spirit of magazines is really about.