The Smallening

Rolling Stone cutting its size down, going glue-back.

Sad, but true. I must admit that I particularly love this line:

On balance, going to standard size should appeal to advertisers, according to Brenda White, senior vice president for publishing at Starcom USA

Why the fuck should that necessarily be so? Advertisers like eyes. Period. RS is (reportedly) at its highest circulation ever. This is like saying people will just naturally prefer New Coke in the total absence of any evidence to support it. After all, it's new! Didn't you see the name? New!

And then there's this all-too-depressing note:

In the large format, long articles often turn up as daunting expanses of almost uninterrupted type. With the revision, such pages are smaller and less intimidating, and more likely to be broken up with photographs.

Yep, we like our 2nd grade level picktoor books. Don't skaer me with that there tipe of your'n cause'n I don't cotton to the readin' so much.

“We’ve evolved,” Mr. Wenner said. “But the core tradition, the mission, remains the same.”

Indeed, Jann, shorter articles and, preferably, just a picture about Brittney are irreducibly the core tradition of long form music criticism and politically charged articles. Hunter S. Thompson became the face of the magazine mostly because of his brief, 10 word bullet points (and lots of pictures) about how Avril Levigne is totally kewl.

Mark my words: this is officially the middle of the end (the beginning was the demotion and summary deletion of anything approaching serious criticism alongside the transformation of the other content to little more than Maxim-style laddy-mag filler).
Content may come and go, but you generally don't mess with your fundamental brand image and survive. McDonalds, for instance, may as well adopt a large red "D" logo and a friendly but comically edgy cat-spokesman named Terry. How did New Coke work out? More of the same.

My remarkable, nay oracular insight into the future? Single copy newstand sales (what they claim to be after) will not be positively affected by making the magazine more generic in appearance. I know, I know. Rocket science.