RIP Mass Appeal magazine

Is this the cover of a successful magazine? Does seeing an unkempt and wasted Michael Pitt taking a drag make you want to pick this magazine up from the newsstand?

Worry no more because Mass Appeal <ironic title if there ever was one> is gone.

Comments

[Blake's Baby]

Gotta tell ya, Reaper, having worked a short and frustrating few weeks at this book last summer, I saw the writing on the wall.

I was there doing promotional copy for their sales materials. The publisher and her ad staff were frustrated that the media buyers kept shrinking away. I kept scratching my head that a magazine marketed to young men had ignored that fact that its direct target hardly reads magazines anymore and are getting the same things Mass Appeal offered online.

In devising sales copy to attract advertisers, I delved into past issues of the book. I kept being like, "Okay, this magazine is an open proponent of young men being on drugs and drinking, and also occasionally doing illegal things for fun." There's a whole string of advertisers who are wary of associating with a brand like that.

The mag was thought to be authentically hip-hop, but since most of the staffers were white and into skateboarding, it often covered that world. Funnily, they had trouble attracting skateboard companies to advertise. I think it was because of the mag's lukewarm commitment to skateboarding culture in its promotions. Some staffers thought it was a strictly hip-hop title, others thought otherwise. I don't think anyone on staff could define exactly who their readers were, or wanted to.

The magazine's owner Adrian Moeller, had lost interest in trying to invest any more dollars into the title. Patrick Elasik sudden death came before he devised a brilliant business idea. He organized the various contacts the mag had with grafitti artists and started managing them to paint wall-sized murals for ad agencies as Collosal Media. Colossal is the component of the company that mints money, while the mags flounder.

Missbehave, a new title aimed at presumably the girlfriends of the Mass Appeal guy, has similar issues. The creative director is brilliant and had developed a strong style for that title, but I was frustrated that none of the staff could state who their target was for that title. It's said the Missbehave targets the "downtown" girl, which one assumes to be a white young woman interested in hip-hop inspired fashion and art. More frustrating, as a fashion magazine, they made no attempts to market and promote advertisers' products. No shopping information, none of that.

Mass Appeal started as a vanity project for two guys to score women, free merchandise and host parties. As it grew, and the "style magazine" trend died with the rise of the net, it completely lost it's way. Hip-hop is pop. And Mass Appeal missed that boat.

[Don't hate on Mass Appeal]

Blake's Baby,

You don't know crap behind the scenes when you were an intern or someone just "dropping by". Quit talking as if you know it all when you did a quick stint, you damn wanna be.

Mass Appeal is a brand, not just a magazine. Yes, print is dead, but the Mass Appeal brand is strong. Have you been reading other bloggs and comments? No. You just like being a hater and have a strong need to "show off" to the world you have some sort of "true" insider information. You should read the positive comments people have to say about Mass Appeal and how it shaped urban culture. Alot of people were bummed its print edition is done with, because it was a lifestyle for them. Also, Gawker says that they are concentrating on events and online...so the Mass Appeal brand still lives. Why were you there you even there when you knew what the magazine was all about? Yet you have nothing but criticisms about the staff and the magazine and stuck around to talk crap on Magazine Death Pool? I was there and the magazine and people were great.

It was too bad the publisher Adrian Moeller did not choose to invest in online and kept his focus on print for Mass Appeal, but he has to deal with that. As for the media selling staff, they have to sell what is in front of them or given to them, they can't magically whip up a website or put a gun to the publishers head to demand different properties.

It's obvious, you are one of those "sideline" people, who talk alot of crap, don't know how business works and never have succeeded on your own. What have you accomplished in the publishing world....obviously nothing, you need to accept you have and are a nobody!