Talk, I suppose, got people talking. With its volumes of coverage in the press, and a certain amount of "hype" just from the fact that it is a launch by former editor of The New Yorker Tina Brown, Talk was the talk of the magazine industry.

Talk was designed, according to Brown, to be patterned after the European news weeklies. This design effect is apparent on the over-sized covers. On the front cover, celebrities appear like "Yard Sale" signs on a city block. The premiere issue captures Hillary Clinton three times on the cover, above a seductive-looking Gwyneth Paltrow.

Brown's launch is powerful. Ron Galotti's marketing coup ensured 120 pages of ads in each of the first four issues. In the first issue we have Hillary Clinton open up about her non-public life. Still, the magazine seems a bit confused at times, simply because of an incoherent editorial flow.

A piece by Eddie Dean about the culture of trailer-trash America shares an issue with an article about the fur debate. Both pieces analyze different ends of the cultural spectrum, the wealthy and the poor, and this might work when editing for The New Yorker. In a magazine like Talk, which is supposed to be a truly general category magazine that can inspire cultural discourse, the inherent question is raised: When someone drops $2.95 on a magazine, do they want to talk or would they rather just read?

It's looking like people would rather read a magazine than talk about a magazine, at least as far as Talk is concerned. Even though it has used newsprint paper, over-sized dimensions and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover, Talk's problem is that more people are talking now about what is going on inside the magazine's offices than the actual content of the magazine. The magazine, it appears, is not capturing the hearts of U.S. readers. Though notable, the magazine is somewhat fragmented in its editorial concept and brings nothing new to the table.