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.

There is no question about it that the ethnic and minority category has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of titles being introduced to the marketplace. It is an overdue growth, but as with any growth it brings with it the good, the bad and the ugly. This edition of What's Hot, What's Not features three new publications from the black/ethnic category. J'Adore, Straight Stuntin and Chocolate Brides represent the latest attempts to capture potential consumers within the black community. Each of these magazines has its strengths and weaknesses, but they all have one thing in common: creating another niche title for an ultra specialized audience. Judge for yourself:

Chocolate Brides Magazine
Cover Price: $4.99
www.chocolatebrides.com

Chocolate Brides is a quarterly magazine for women of color planning their wedding day. It joins the numerous bridal publications released each year, all trying to carve out a niche. Chocolate Brides has a definite niche as a resource guide for an underserved segment of the population and has done a fine job of creating content to develop its niche. The articles in this magazine are informative with topics on wedding themes, hair designs and bridal fashion for women of color. Specialization is the key to success in today's marketplace. This magazine has a niche but it remain to be seen whether it has the necessary "pop" to stand out along side established magazines in the same category on the newsstands. The magazine is a true reflection of its mission and audience. It is worthy of checking it out.      

J'Adore Magazine
Cover Price: $4.99
www.jadoremag.com

J'Adore (its full title is 'The Best of All World's All Together in J'Adore') is a quarterly magazine claiming to encompass the best of all worlds and is intended for both male and female consumers. But when looking through the pages of J'Adore it is difficult to believe that any of its content is intended for women. The content in J'Adore is geared toward a male audience and no self-respecting woman would be attracted to the pictorials that make up most of the magazines content. Also, sandwiching an article on starving children in Africa between model pictorials probably was not one of the best creative moments in time. J'Adore's cover with its host of sell lines is overwhelming. It seems that there is more type on the cover alone than the rest of the magazine. In a perfect world you could be the best of all world's all together, but in the magazine world you have to find a niche (audience wise and content wise) and develop it.  

Straight Stuntin
Cover Price: $5.99

Straight Stuntin is a hefty 246 page magazine featuring spreads of beautiful women of color and the hip hop lifestyle. There is no misunderstanding this magazine's message. It is about eye candy. When the editor thanks the Creator for allowing him to show women's talents and shape, well, you know what you are getting. Straight Stuntin has plenty of pictorials of women with articles on rap artists thrown in for good measure. This magazine may not win any awards, but it does not make the mistake of misrepresenting itself to potential consumers. It is just pure Stuntin....

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July 6, 2007
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© 2008 Samir Husni, Ph.D. - Mr. Magazine™