Life Magazine will once again stop publishing. In a week where Adweek declared that traditional advertising was dead it should be no surprise that the living dead magazine Life is about to go. And why? Because the publisher would only run brand advertising. But since Life has been running as a Sunday supplement, and these magazines are supported overwhelmingly by direct response advertising — and because the NY Times reported that Life's publishers had an issue with that — Life is dead again, this time most likely with a stake through its heart.
I don't mean to sound flip about this. I am horrified at what is happening to print as a medium today. And I am sad to see Life go. Or more accurately, I was sad when it first died in 1972. I still have my Woodstock commemorative issue from 1969 (along with my Woodstock ticket and program book, a rarity because it was barely distributed) and The Year In Pictures 1971, in which I appear in a photo essay on Gay Activism.
It was a summer night, and Merle Miller was speaking at the Gay Activist Alliance firehouse. Life came to take photos, and the leadership asked those who wanted to appear in the photos to sit in a certain area. I was 19 years old, and I went right for the front row. Ancient history now. But history I was part of.
Today, well, this is the medium. YouTube and who knows what's next.
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