Society-Mag Smackdown

these magazines are a joke

Submitted by janedoesmith on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 10:35.

And advertisers should be wary of their made up circulations and sham "audience data."

Who Owns "Society"?

Submitted by on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 11:23.

This article is interesting and entertaining if only because it illustrates some of the rather ridiculous ego's that exist in New York Society. There are some who seek for business purposes, there own business purposes mind you, to define Society rather narrowly in a highly exclusive manner as consisting of the same 5-10 Waspy Ralph Lauren'esque families of the Upper East Side and the occasional philanthropic Jew who does not ruffle the old WASP culture's feathers. In fact, in some of these publications, you will see the same 20 people in it month in and month out. It is that mindset which makes New York less interesting and not more interesting. Society as I define it is a rather inclusive term of people that influence the social, artistic and creative under current of the metropolis. Ask any development director of any major charitable or cultural institution whether ALL of the glossy's and the websites assist in making the New York Charitable world a tad more interesting, hence leading to more ticket sales and the answer is an unequivocal yes. To the old guard who promote rather effectively this illusive concept of a club that nobody is good enough to belong to (unless DPC covers it), perhaps if your coverage stretched a bit more widely than the handful of folks you (or your colleagues) went to prep school with, then the world of philanthropy would be a bit more appealing to a wider cross section of the population. Do some research, like this "Bridge & Tunnel" born New Yorker has and what you will discover is that it is the "Middle Class" that gives the greatest percentage of their earnings to charity. With all due respect to Mr. Columbia, you were not even born in New York City, there are some folks in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island who will never hit your radar screen who are quite charitably minded. Those folks are a part of my world. That you see no interest in covering those folks speaks volumes of whom you want to hob nob with for financial purposes. That there are folks reading Social Life Magazine, ManhattanSociety.com, GuestofaGuest.com, Panache Magazine and/or Jason Binn's Niche Media publications just reflects what consumers want to see, which is a different take on reality. Personally, my bible is the New York Times, but I read the Observer, The NY Post,Wall Street Journal, Cityfile, The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post and all the other angles on this metropolis. They all have their take, and they are ALL VALID. Last I checked nobody had an ownership interest on New York Society, whatever that means.