Conversations with Celebrities, Buried in Advertising

As most people at Epinions know, I'm someone who likes to read. Whether it's a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or anything else, I'm always ready to flip through the pages of a piece of reading material and become enlightened, even if the subject matter isn't necessarily something that ranks high on my interest list.

With magazines, I stick mainly to news, sports, finance, and travel. But on occasion, I will reach for something completely different. That's how I got turned on to a new magazine called Interview, a monthly publication dedicated to interviews with celebrities. I became aware of this magazine one day while checking my e-mail. They offered me a free, three- year subscription and since I had nothing to lose, I gladly accepted.

Features of This Magazine:

Besides the actual interviews, which encompass the last one- third of each issue, Interview also has some standard monthly features/columns. They are:

Contributors/Letters- This includes a listing of the writers and others who made contributions to each issue. followed by a one- page section of letters to the editor.

Movie Latest- Here you will find a quick summary of the latest film debuts, reviews, and previews of movies that have recently been released.

Music News- In this section, you will hear the latest music news, with articles about new bands, established bands, and trends in the music scene.

What's on Fashion's Plate- New clothing styles, hair styles, and other fashion- related news can be found in this area. Interview often has several articles about fashion each month, with various column titles.

What's New and Noteworthy- This is a miscellaneous section that includes all sorts of different articles, with each one of them relating in some way to entertainment or the arts.

Letter from the Editor- This is a one- page article written by editor Ingrid Sischy. It's like a "thought of the day", but much longer. It relates to something in the entertainment industry.

Other areas that are covered in some but not all issues of Interview include book reviews, columns on food and dining, and other entertainment related topics.

Cost to Subscribe:

Interview carries a cover price of $2.99 and is published monthly, but you can subscribe and cut the cost way down. A 12- month subscription currently sells for $12, which is only one dollar per issue. This represents a savings of about 66 percent from the cover price. If you go on- line to purchase a subscription, you can find even better deals. The best one I have found is $8.00 for one year, in the magazine's own on- line site, interviewmagazine.com.

Final Thoughts:

I like to read magazines, and getting free subscriptions makes them that much more enjoyable. While I stick mainly to magazines on busines, travel, news, and a few other topics, I still like to read magazines that are a little bit out of my comfort zone.

Interview is definitely a different type of magazine for me, but it's not quite what I expected. With a title like "Interview" I was anticipating a magazine full of nothing but interviews. It turns out that interviewing is the main focus of the magazine, but it's not the only one. There is substantial space given to fashion, movies, and other areas, too. Some of these columns are worth an occasional look, but they failed to grab my attention. The writers seem to play it safe, and that includes the interview section. They don't ask many daring or controversial questions. They keep it simple, asking questions about an entertainer's latest album or movie, without delving much into their personal lives.

Interview has many general annoyances. My greatest complaint is the advertising and the arrangement of the contents. About half of the pages in each issue are covered with ads, with fashion, liquor, beer, and hair care items providing the bulk of the advertising revenue. The ads are everywhere, with the majority in the front pages of each issue. The table of contents is buried, and I find this very frustrating! The contents starts with the interviews on one page, then a few pages later, proceeds to the regular monthly features. What's annoying is that you have to search for the table of contents. It varies from one issue to the next, falling anywhere from page 15 to page 35.

Interview also varies greatly in length. Some issues are as short as 80 pages while others are more than 200 pages long. The shorter issues use staples for binding while the longer issues are bound in a more professional way, minus any metal.

This magazine centers on entertainers, fashion, music, and the like. You won't find any interviews with politicians, businessmen, etc. Interview sticks strictly to entertainers, and that includes the regular monthly columns. You won't find a column about the business side of the music industry or film industry. You will find only articles about the stars themselves.

Interview's only saving grace is the photography. It would make a nice gift for those who enjoy fashion and who like looking at pages and pages of men and women modeling fancy clothing. But other than that, Interview is sloppy and cluttered with too many ads to make it worthwhile reading material. My subscription was free, and I'm thankful that it was. Besides a few nice photos for clothing, there isn't much to make this magazine worth the cost.