History Main / MagazineDecay

* Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine during the 90s and early 2000s featured lots of articles on things kids might find interesting or bizarre, interviews with popular stars at the time, comics, and content related to the channel. Approaching the end of their initial run in 2010, the magazine became a lot thinner and became 99% comics, not restricting them to one section of the magazine anymore and appearing more like the separate Nickelodeon Comics magazines. There was also lots of WolverinePublicity for ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' around this time, since it's the network's most popular series. This might be justified, as those issues sold better than the others.
** A revival of the magazine launched in 2015 under the publisher Papercutz. It was still fairly thin, mostly just contained comics based on then-new Nicktoons (which meant no original comics or even ''[=SpongeBob=]'' comics) and cut many beloved aspects of the magazine such as the contests and the canine mascot Zelda Van Gutters. It only lasted eleven issues.

Some magazines, however, are not as wedded to their original concept as others. [[ExecutiveMeddling Meddling executives]] at your magazine realizes that they could attract ''more'' people in your demographic by, say, adding some dirty humor to your video game magazine. Or adding celebrity gossip to your housekeeping magazine. After all, housewives like housekeeping and/or Creator/GeorgeClooney, so why not combine them? (Adding in ever-more celeb gossip figures in more than half of the below examples).

* Most of the earliest ''Entertainment Weekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered major hit shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurturing under-appreciated hits like ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).

* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' itself was accused of suffering from this at least since the late 1990s, relying only on [[RefugeInVulgarity gross humor]] when it's not aiming {{Take That}}s at almost AnythingThatMoves; the former is rather factual, while the latter fits more to [[WesternAnimation/{{MAD}} its animated adaptation]], itself LighterAndSofter than ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' or ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''. One major milestone of shame was the addition of actual advertisements in 2001, which were previously the subject of vicious lampooning. The pivot to political satire beginning with the 2016 election, has been credited with hastening the publication's demise (which all but occurred in 2019) instead of reviving it, though a last-ditch attempt at a reboot got [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By DC]]

* Most of the earliest ''Entertainment Weekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered major hit shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured cult hits like ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).

Some magazines, however, are not as wedded to their original concept as others. [[ExecutiveMeddling Meddling executives]] at your magazine realizes that they could attract ''more'' people in your demographic by, say, adding some dirty humor to your video game magazine. Or adding celebrity gossip to your housekeeping magazine. After all, housewives like housekeeping and like Creator/GeorgeClooney, so why not combine them? (Adding in ever-more celeb gossip figures in more than half of the below examples).

* Most of the earliest ''Entertainment Weekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered major hit shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured cult hits, like ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).

* Most of the earliest ''Entertainment Weekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered hit shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured under-appreciated hits, like ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).

* Most of the earliest ''Entertainment Weekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured under-appreciated hits, like ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).

* Most of the earliest ''EntertainmentWeekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Star Wars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured under-appreciated hits, like ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue).
* ''US Weekly'' has spent so long being the trashy tabloid we all know and loathe that few remember that it actually used to be a pretty good monthly entertainment magazine called ''Us''. By the end of TheNineties, however, decay set in as they switched to pure cheap celebrity gossip and photos, then became a weekly.

* ''Commentary'' was originally founded as an anti-Stalinist left-wing magazine centered around Jewish cultural affairs, founded in the wake of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, the foundation of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and general post-[=WWII=] period. Under the influence of its long-time editor Norman Podhoretz and his own ideological transformation, the magazine ended up being the birthplace for the neoconservative movement, and is today firmly on the right wing.

In 2013, ''Newsweek'' was sold to the digital news organization IBT Media, which announced it would relaunch the magazine in print. Some expressed concern about IBT's editorial influence over the new ''Newsweek'', as the company is indirectly controlled by a controversial Korean evangelist and runs right-wing religious news sites like ''The Christian Post''. The relaunch turned into an embarrassment when it turned out the inaugural issue's cover story misidentified the inventor of the Bitcoin.

* Brazilian magazine ''Mundo Estranho'' was originally a spin-off of ''Superinteressante'' packed full of trivia and answering scientific questions; now it's focused on young readers, full of articles about sex and other things that would catch the eye of a teenage boy. There's still trivia in it, and for the most part, it's an enjoyable read but female readers complain a lot about the shift towards male interests. That is, until it was canned in 2019 after 18 years running.

* ''U.S. News and World Report'' used to be even more hardcore hard news than ''Time'' in its heyday and TV ads for subscriptions presented that as a point of pride. But it too succumbed to the banal and shallow, in particular putting out a Special Christianity Issue every few months. And now it's online only.

However, the magazine's switch from a glue binding to staples and a thinner, glossier paper in January 1998 (a literal decay, as the staple-bound issues aren't as durable as the glue-bound) coincided with the narrowing of its scope to the point that it became yet another facet of Disney's marketing department, but soon after it became reduced to featuring puff-pieces about popular non-Disney characters like ''Literature/HarryPotter'' and ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' because of the company's [[DorkAge inability to create popular new characters]] at the TurnOfTheMillennium, as pointed out by Roy Disney, Jr. (Walt's nephew) in an article for his "Save Disney" web site in 2004, reflecting poorly on the company's overall creative health at the time. After Michael Eisner was forced out in 2005, ''Disney Adventures'' was quietly and gradually phased out, putting out its last issue in November 2007. That last issue featured interviews with Creator/PattonOswalt, Creator/MileyCyrus, Creator/JerrySeinfeld, and Creator/AmyAdams, as well as a ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' comic that appeared in the first issue and a collage of all the issues that came before.

* Beginning in January 1924, ''The American Mercury'' was a world-class literary journal edited by Creator/HLMencken and publishing and promoting the likes of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Saroyan, Sandburg, and Dreiser. Although the ''Mercury'', like Mencken himself, maintained a fairly consistently conservative editorial line, in particular a proto-libertarian suspicion of government involvement in the economy, it was also open to other ideas (it merged with the democratic socialist-leaning ''Common Sense'' in 1946) and was suspicious of any form of hysteria. After [[TheGreatDepression the Stock Market crashed]], the magazine began trying to keep with the times, and did so admirably; its most lasting influence came in 1945, when it debuted ''Series/MeetThePress'' on the Mutual Radio Network.[[note]]The show moved to Creator/{{NBC}}-TV on November 6, 1947, and remains a network stalwart.[[/note]] Unfortunately, in August 1952 it was sold to Russell Maguire, the owner of the Thompson Gun Company and a virulent anti-Semite, who turned the journal into a vehicle for extreme-right politics and neo-fascism.[[note]]While Mencken himself was prejudiced against Jews, this was more from the values of his day than out-and-out hate.[[/note]] George Lincoln Rockwell, future founder of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the American]] [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]], became editor in 1956, while Creator/WilliamFBuckleyJr, a onetime writer, quit the magazine and founded ''National Review'' (a more anti-fascist and pro-Jewish conservative magazine) in disgust at what the ''Mercury'' became. Circulation and respectability plunged, and by June 1966 (after changing hands twice to other neo-Nazi and hard-right figures in the intervening years) the ''Mercury'' was a quarterly hardcore white-supremacist rag with 7,000 subscribers...and it only got worse as the years wore on. It finally ended in 1981 and, per Wiki/TheOtherWiki:

* Beginning in January 1924, ''The American Mercury'' was a world-class literary journal edited by Creator/HLMencken and publishing and promoting the likes of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Saroyan, Sandburg, and Dreiser. Although the ''Mercury'', like Mencken himself, maintained a fairly consistently conservative editorial line, in particular a proto-libertarian suspicion of government involvement in the economy, it was also open to other ideas (it merged with the democratic socialist-leaning ''Common Sense'' in 1946) and was suspicious of any form of hysteria. After [[TheGreatDepression the Stock Market crashed]], the magazine began trying to keep with the times, and did so admirably; its most lasting influence came in 1945, when it debuted ''Series/MeetThePress'' on the Mutual Radio Network.[[note]]The show moved to Creator/{{NBC}}-TV on November 6, 1947, and remains a network stalwart.[[note]] Unfortunately, in August 1952 it was sold to Russell Maguire, the owner of the Thompson Gun Company and a virulent anti-Semite, who turned the journal into a vehicle for extreme-right politics and neo-fascism.[[note]]While Mencken himself was prejudiced against Jews, this was more from the values of his day than out-and-out hate.[[/note]] George Lincoln Rockwell, future founder of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the American]] [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]], became editor in 1956, while Creator/WilliamFBuckleyJr, a onetime writer, quit the magazine and founded ''National Review'' (a more anti-fascist and pro-Jewish conservative magazine) in disgust at what the ''Mercury'' became. Circulation and respectability plunged, and by June 1966 (after changing hands twice to other neo-Nazi and hard-right figures in the intervening years) the ''Mercury'' was a quarterly hardcore white-supremacist rag with 7,000 subscribers...and it only got worse as the years wore on. It finally ended in 1981 and, per Wiki/TheOtherWiki:

* Most of the earliest ''EntertainmentWeekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Star Wars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured under-appreciated hits, like ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]]. It was then announced in February of 2022 it would cease being a print publication and online only (which apparently was a surprise to the people ''putting together'' what they had no idea was going to be the final issue.

* Most of the earliest ''EntertainmentWeekly'' readers remember it as the magazine that covered ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' since they brought the magazine the most success (along with ''Star Wars'' stories as TheNineties wore on). But it also stood out from other entertainment industry-focused weekly mags (like ''People'' and ''US Weekly'') with its in-depth coverage of movies and TV, treating celebrities as real people/artists rather than gossip fodder, and nurtured under-appreciated hits, like ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But since a major administration change in 2008, the magazine got a bit wonky. With the decline of printed media, ''EW'' began to focus much more on their web content, and the mag's usual depth diminished as a result. Compare a 1990s issue to one from TheNewTens, and the difference is noticeable. The TV coverage is mostly limited to longtime TV writer Ken Tucker, for instance. The ''coup de grace'' to many longtime readers, which coincided with the 2008 changeover, was an infatuation with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', presumably to attract its fanbase into purchasing the magazine. While their borderline manic coverage toned down after 2010, the multiple covers and articles turned off non-fans before then -- in the second half of '09, covers seemed to alternate between those and Music/MichaelJackson retrospectives. Recently, it seems like the magazine's editor-in-chief (shared with ''People'') is more obsessed about getting himself on television (an appearance by him on ''Series/{{Younger}}'' with an accompanying editor's note in the magazine about how awesome he was could have been filled by literally anyone else) and about the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (an online attempt at bringing both magazines to television) than about the content of ''EW'', and with how the election turned out, also took to political comments not really needed in an entertainment magazine. Sometime in June 2019, ''EW'' announced that it will become a [[ArtifactTitle monthly magazine instead of weekly]].

* Beginning in January 1924, ''The American Mercury'' was a world-class literary journal edited by Creator/HLMencken and publishing and promoting the likes of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Saroyan, Sandburg, and Dreiser; although the ''Mercury'', like Mencken himself, maintained a fairly consistently proto-libertarian editorial line (shifting into more conventional conservatism after Mencken left in 1933--in the 1940s, it became the blueprint for ''National Review''), it was also open to other ideas (it merged with the democratic socialist-leaning ''Common Sense'' in 1946) and was suspicious of any form of hysteria. After [[TheGreatDepression the Stock Market crashed]], the magazine began trying to keep with the times, and did so admirably; its most lasting influence came in 1945, when it debuted ''Series/MeetThePress'' on the Mutual Radio Network (the show moved to Creator/{{NBC}}-TV on November 6, 1947, and remains a network stalwart). Unfortunately, in August 1952 it was sold to the owner of the Thompson Gun Company, who turned the journal into a vehicle for extreme-right politics, anti-Semitism (while Mencken himself was prejudiced against Jews, this was more from the values of his day than out-and-out hate), and neo-fascism. George Lincoln Rockwell, future founder of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the American]] [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]], became editor in 1956. Circulation and respectability plunged, and by June 1966 (after changing hands twice to other neo-Nazi and hard-right figures in the intervening years) the ''Mercury'' was a quarterly hardcore white-supremacist rag with 7,000 subscribers...and it only got worse as the years wore on. It finally ended in 1981 and, per Wiki/TheOtherWiki:

* With the exception of ''Magazine/RadioTimes'' (which is obsessed with ''Series/DoctorWho''), all British listings magazines are obsessed with lifestyle and {{soap opera}}s these days. The ''Radio Times'' also has an ArtifactTitle — it was originally just radio listings, but when Creator/TheBBC added TV listings they kept the original title.

* ''Materidouska''[[note]]translated as "thymus" or "thyme"; Czech speakers can identify that the herb's name means "mother's breath" etymologically[[/note]] is a Czech magazine for children founded in 1945. It's supposed to be ''for youngest readers'' -- children from 7 to 10. It was initiated by poet Frantisek Hrubin and included lots of original illustrations, funny rhymes and poems, short comics, fairy-tales, and stories. The cover usually featured a picture by an illustrator, sometimes a renowned artist. In the early 2000s, the focus shifted and Hollywood blockbusters (usually CGI-animated movies) graced the cover, never mind it didn't go too well with the original gentle-looking logo ([[http://www.mediatimes.cz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/casopis-materidouska-1945-2010.jpg Compare]] the covers of the first issue and an issue from 2010). One issue caused a major "what the hell"-level uproar by featuring [[{{Literature/Twilight}} Edward Cullen]] on the cover (along with a blurb about "Vampiric Ten Commandments"... and Halloween is not even a well-known holiday in the country). Considering that we're talking about a romantic-horror film with abusive relationships and an infamous biting birth/miscarriage, this was not just held as a breach of good taste, but of common sense.

** [=HuffPost TV=] started life as TV Squad, which provided TV-related news, reviews, detailed recaps, and interviews. It also featured TV Replay: short clips that let people catch up on watercooler moments or get a taste of shows they'd not watch normally. Once it was acquired by ''Huffington'' (after a brief stint as AOL TV), the detailed reviewing and reporting gradually went out the window to be replaced by its parent's signature sensationalist headlines and perfunctory write ups. TV Replay, meanwhile, transformed into news reports where reporters ''described'' TV highlights to viewers as if they were hard news stories.

* The Italian ''Jetix Magazine'' started as a magazine about the cartoons aired on Jetix during that period and other stuff. Starting from Issue #5, the whole magazine was written using only XtremeKoolLetterz and started to expand the "and other stuff" part. The only Jetix toons they actually talked about out of random mentions were ''Anime/SonicX'' and ''WesternAnimation/DragonBooster'', while on the other side they added stuff like a "how to become a great detective" section themed around ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' (which, if you're asking, was NOT a cartoon aired on ''Jetix''). The video game section stopped using votes and replaced them with one-word comments like "Cool" or "Great", and the articles about villains screwed up adding dangerous animals in it (they said that a DUST MITE is more powerful than [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]]!)...and then it stopped at Issue #8.

* This was welcome for ''N64 Magazine'', which slowly pushed its N64 coverage out in favour of the GameCube. Rather than go to all the hassle of launching a new magazine, the publisher just renamed it ''NGC'' and continued the issue numbering.

* Kodansha's ''Otomodachi'' and ''Tanoshii Youchien'' started out as unisex learning magazines for toddlers, having an equal mix of content aimed at boys and girls. However, after ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' became popular, the magazine slowly decayed into one appealing to girls exclusively, to the point where the boys' stuff moved to ''Television Magazine'' (which was also for both genders at one point). Features for boys can still be found in the magazine, but they don't take up as much space as the girl's franchises and rarely get any furoku included.

[[folder:News]]
* ''U.S. News and World Report'' used to be even more hardcore hard news than ''Time'' in its heyday and TV ads for subscriptions presented that as a point of pride. But it too succumbed to the banal and shallow, in particular putting out a Special Christianity Issue every few months. And now it's online only.
* One of Johnson Publication's flagship books, ''Jet'', used to clock in at a decent 80+ pages chock full of interesting national news about black Americans and civil rights. For example, it published unedited photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. after his assassination while most media outlets glossed over his murder. It also had a bikini centerfold, usually on Page 43--which was itself something of a political statement, as in those days no black woman would appear in a centerfold, so having a bikini centerfold was a way to show that black women could be beautiful (and of course, sell more of the magazines to men). Nowadays, the centerfold pretty much appears anywhere near the back because the magazine on average barely reaches ''35'' pages anymore, and most of the civil rights coverage and national news has been shafted in favor of celebrity fluff.
** In a fictional example, on ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jack Donaghy once commented that ''Jet'' was originally a magazine for airplane owners and wonders how the editors could have made that drastic a change.

[[folder:Politics]]
* ''Maclean's'' is roughly the Canadian equivalent of ''Time'', and while it's always had a fairly prominent editorial board, it was seldom overt in its politics, which were moderately conservative. Accompanied with a questionable aesthetic makeover (very quickly dropped after many reader complaints) were fairly sensationalist headlines (generally about Muslims) and some genuinely controversial articles from a source that simply wasn't known for it. By the 2010s, its stance began to shift towards centrism, which alienated many right-wing readers. Its treatment of Stockwell Day practically finished any respect a lot of Western Canadians had for it.
* ''Magazine/TimeMagazine''. As recently as the 1980s, it was primarily politics and current events (with one section covering entertainment in a similarly thoughtful manner), and arguably superior to ''Magazine/TheEconomist'' in its heyday. While politics is still a big focus, celebrity gossip with sensationalist headlines is also featured now, along with fluffy media reviews and whatnot. ''Website/TheOnion'' skewered the dumbing-down of ''Time'' in their video feature [[http://www.theonion.com/video/time-announces-new-version-of-magazine-aimed-at-ad,17950/ "Time Announces New Version Of Magazine Aimed At Adults"]].
** ''Time''[='s=] annual Person of the Year award could be said to have undergone its own form of decay. The award wasn't originally meant as an honor, but was given to the person whom the magazine deemed to have had the most influence on that year's events, for good or for ill — it was given to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler in 1938, for example, and UsefulNotes/JosefStalin in 1939 and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1942]]. The choices were often [[CreatorProvincialism Americentric]] (every US President since [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], [[ButtMonkey apart from]] UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, has won the award at least once), but that's a given for an American newsmagazine. ''Time'' consistently argues that being elected to the presidency of the most powerful nation on Earth is in and of itself a huge impact on the world.\\\
However, the choice of [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Ayatollah Khomeini]] in 1979 proved to be ''hugely'' controversial, as many readers were disgusted with the magazine for "honoring" an enemy of the United States (even though Person of the Year was never meant as an honor). Decay set in as ''Time'' stuck with safer choices from then on, such as giving it to Rudy Giuliani instead of UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden in [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 2001]] in order to avoid a similar backlash, which only reinforced the false perception that Person of the Year was meant as an honor. The same issue named UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein as Person of the Century...and did so in an article that seemed to tacitly admit that Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler would've been the most logical selections (under the official "not an honor" standard).\\\
Another problem resulted from the magazine's increasing tendency to award collective "Persons of the Year," which began [[OlderThanTheyThink as far back as 1950]]. While early selections of this kind ("The American Fighting Man," "U.S. Scientists") were relatively uncontroversial, ''Time'' received a huge backlash for naming "The Inheritor" (i.e., the under-25 generation) as their "Person of the Year" in 1966. This, along with the 1969 award to "The Middle Americans," proved extremely controversial in the polarized '60s, while also generating criticism for seemingly missing the point of their own award. From there, such strange choices as "The Computer" in 1982, "The Endangered Earth" in 1988 and "You" (representing the rise of the online community) in 2006 proliferated. Which isn't to mention the creation of a hype machine around the award — the cover is now unveiled either on Creator/{{CNN}} or ''Series/{{Today}}'', as if they're naming the nominees for the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s.
** ''Time'' '''artificially darkened''' the mugshot photo of OJ Simpson to make him seem scarier and were called out on it. Creator/JonStewart declared it the day Print Media "JumpedTheShark".
** They also lost credibility after they published their (in)famous cover story "51%" (% of American women who aren't married), claiming it was the death of marriage now that the majority of women are choosing to remain single. The count included 15-year-olds and widows.
** This infamous [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/19insert-word-here-differences-between-time-magazine-us-and collage]] compares American ''Time'' covers to its foreign covers, showing just how far that magazine has gone with regards to this trope. For example, ''Time''[='=]s Europe, Asia, and South Pacific cover story was the continued unrest in post-revolutionary Egypt. Its U.S. cover story? "Why Anxiety Is Good For You". While all four versions contained the same articles, the choice of which one to promote on the cover as being the ''main'' story speaks volumes.
* The Brazilian equivalent of ''Time'', ''Veja''. They used to be a standpoint of good journalism, especially as they started the same year the military dictatorship got stronger and censored the magazine copiously for about 15 years... but in the 2000s, it started being tarnished by both a right-wing political bias and questionable cover choices (which were at times done to avoid subjects they didn't want to talk about). Add that in 2012 the editors and journalists were accused of receiving influence of a convicted lobbyist... (on the other hand, the rise of [[Usefulnotes/JairBolsonaro an ill-prepared right wing politician up to the Brazilian presidency]] was not backed by ''Veja'', who continuously bash him, showing EveryoneHasStandards).
* ''Commentary'' was originally founded as an anti-Stalinist left-wing magazine centered around Jewish cultural affairs, founded in the wake of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, the foundation of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and general post-[=WWII=] period. Under the influence of its long-time editor Norman Podhoretz and his own ideological transformation, the magazine ended up being the birthplace for the neoconservative movement, and is today firmly on the right wing.
[[/folder]]

* ''PC/Computing''[='s=] decay from an irreverent hobbyist publication that featured [[Creator/PennAndTeller Penn Jillette]]'s industry satire on the back page to a more straightforward computer magazine was probably inevitable as computers became mainstream in the early 1990s. Much less so its abrupt switch from hardware and software reviews to buzzword-filled puff pieces on the "new economy" in 1999, especially considering how the "new economy" went belly-up a few months after the switch.