Last night, in a rare moment of downtime, I started on the backlog of magazines piling up under my dining table. There were old issues of Harpers Bazaar, Shop Til You Drop, Marie Claire and Vogue, but it was the issues of InStyle I was most looking forward to. You see, I read all those other mags religiously. Then I obsessively keep them all, lined up in date order, on bookshelves and in nooks and crannies around my house. The beauty of the back issue is the ability to cut it up, to stick images on my inspiration wall and find nuggets of information I want to put in a folder for a later date. I can never cut up my original copies. Yes, I am that obsessive compulsive. I like them to be pristine. That is the Power of Print.

But back to In Style. Two issues, US May and Aus June. Of course I started with the US issue – it was chronologically logical – and so I settled in to read all about Scarlett Johannsen and the coming US Spring/Summer season. I thoroughly enjoyed it and once finished, moved onto the Aus June edition. Being far more relevant to me as an Australian and showcasing our current Autumn/Winter fashions, I had saved this mag for last.

As I opened the glossy pages and started flicking though, I was hit with a wave of déjà vu. Hadn’t I read this before? And not that long ago? I picked up the US copy and discovered recycling in its crudest form. The articles from the US edition had been inserted into the Aus edition, and with some new formatting, were presented to the public as fresh content.

I realise not everyone in Australia reads the overseas editions of their favourite magazines but for the die hard fashionistas, I feel like I am being ripped off. Why would I want to buy the Australian version of the magazine if I can get it a month earlier in the overseas edition? And why would I buy the overseas version that is twice the price if I can read the Australian one with the same content a few weeks later? I want to support the print industry but this is a cache 22 and I’m not happy about it.

It is ironic then, that I stumbled across this advert in the US edition of InStyle, basically shouting from the rooftops that print isn’t dead. Amusingly, I have also attended several forums of late where industry experts have supported the magazine industry, suggesting that while the business of newspapers might change (in the wake of the immediacy of the internet), niche magazines will continue to go from strength to strength.

Obviously I want to support Australian magazines and industry but I don’t understand why they can’t fill their pages with Australian articles, fashion spreads and content, when we have so many brilliant Australian designers, writers and celebrities. While I will continue to read magazines – they are after all my lifeblood and ‘research’ for my industry – it is imperative that the magazine publishers recognise that if they want people to continue buying their magazines, they have to use fresh content.

Image One: My inspiration wall
Image Two: Advert for The Power of Print, US InStyle, May 2010