What's Hot What's New

The good, the bad and the ugly. You'll find them all here. Each week you'll get my take on the intriguing, and sometimes peculiar, titles to recently hit the newsstand.

Urban Ink Cover Price: $5.99 www.urbaninkmag.com Contrary to popular belief I am not dead and to prove to you that I am not dead I present to you my first magazine review of 2007. Urban Ink magazine is the first tattoo magazine for people of color. Urban Ink is brought to you by the same people that publish Skin and Ink magazine. Urban Ink's publishers claim that African-Americans are the fastest growing group to get inked. They plan to capitalize on this growing trend among people of color and establish themselves as the only information source. Articles on branding, piercing, bright colors on dark skin and the meaning of tribal symbols provide good content and supports it's niche. They have a niche, but they are gambling on the fact that there are enough people of color willing to pay money to support an urban tattoo magazine. I always believed that if you are interested in doing something it does not necessary translate to wanting to read about it.

Strutter Cover Price: Free www.struttermagazine.com Strutter magazine is a new free bi-monthly publication showcasing the entire rock music scene. Although they claim to be the "loudest music magazine" Strutter joins plenty of publications available already that make that claim. Strutter features articles on female rock artist and rock industry tattoos. The band profiles are essentially just press releases that provide little to no information. The editor of Strutter says his goal is for the magazine to go beyond its niche of being a rock music authority, but he fails to do so. This magazine does not distinguish itself from other similar magazines. It will be difficult for this magazine to survive in a marketplace crowded with magazines offering the exact same type of content. It remains to be seen whether Strutter will survive or take a final stage dive off into magazine oblivion.

Se7en Cover Price: $5.99 www.sevenmagonline.com Se7en is a new bi-monthly men's magazine that hits the market with a lot of star power behind it. Celebrities like John Salley, Roy Jones Jr. and Steak Shapiro are a few of the many contributors on this magazine. This magazine tries to cover topics like sports, Wall Street and sex. The magazine features profiles on some of the biggest names in entertainment, while trying to establish itself in a niche market that is already crowded with magazines like GQ, Stuff and Maxim. And although the magazine has a great look and feel it will be very difficult for it to compete with those already well established magazines for the same consumers. Seven is a good number to get on the first roll of dice in the game of craps, but you know what happens when seven rolls after a point is established.