In this special Q&A edition, Arjun Basu, former editor-in-chief of the award-winning enRoute, talks magazines.
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ARJUN BASU
Q. Which mags do you read regularly (specify print or online)?How long do you have? I must admit something right here: social media has really cut into my magazine consumption. And magazines had cut into my TV viewing. I’m like the poster child for the “problems with print,” albeit in a well-read package.
Regularly?
Print: The Economist. Esquire. National Geographic. Details. Geist. Saveur.
Online: The Daily Beast. Huffington Post. Lost at E Minor.
I used to read, almost always, something called Retail Traffic. I would often tell people it was my favorite magazine and for a few years it was. It’s a trade magazine for shopping mall developers. It was a fascinating look into the retail trends to come. And then they changed editors and it became a business magazine. And I lost interest. But looking back, I realize now that its change to a business magazine kind of presaged the economic collapse we saw last year. So it was still a trend magazine in the end, I just didn’t see it.
Q. Which, if any, magazines do you have paid subscriptions to?
One: National Geographic. My father used to get it and now I do. For whatever reason, it’s important to me. Over the years, I’ve let subscriptions lapse for most every magazine except NatGeo. We all love our subscriptions but the current collapse in magazine advertising has shown what happens when publications practically give their product away. They devalue it. Readers became just a way to sell to advertisers. So you have all these magazines beloved by readers, with growing circulations, but falling ads and they have to stop the business. Gourmet is, I think, the perfect example of that phenomenon.
Q. What about work -- do you have access to magazines there? Who decided which ones the office will receive?
My work space is full of magazines. I’m lucky that way.
Q. Which mags do you love to browse through at stores, in the check-out line, but would never buy?
In the stores I usually go through design and food magazines. I love looking through Australian food magazines. For a number of years, they really were the best magazines in the world. I love design magazines from France. There’s a city magazine for Nice that is just gorgeous. I like browsing through the British Esquire as well.
Q. Can you name some of the odder magazines you've browsed through, for lack of choice or out of curiosity, in a waiting room?
I love waiting room magazines. Doctor magazines are fascinating. It’s where I read old issues of celebrity magazines, like People and US and Hello! I suppose Retail Traffic is the oddest magazine I’ve ever loved. But, honestly, it was a fantastic and fascinating publication.
Q. What are your guilty pleasure mags?
Women’s fashion magazines, the glossier the better. I can’t put them down.
Q. Any mags favored for the toilet?
Um...literary pubs. Honestly. I read literary magazines in the toilet. National Geographic is always good. Same with Harper’s.
Q. I think you emailed from a BlackBerry -- do you read online mags on it? If so, how do you like it?
I don’t like reading magazines on my phone. I can read the New York Times but not a magazine. I’m a bit old fashioned in that I still see the magazine as a sensual experience. A magazine needs to be held to be appreciated. Perhaps that’s not the best business model moving forward, but I still believe in magazines. I think they will survive and even thrive but they will become a kind of niche product. Or more niche than what they are now. I mean, we’re bemoaning the loss of Gourmet but it had 800,000 readers in the US. That means over 300 million people weren’t reading it.

ARJUN BASU was born and raised in Montreal. He is the author of Squishy, a short story collection. His stories have also appeared in publications such as Matrix, The Moosehead Anthology and in AWOL: Tales for Travel Inspired Minds. He was editor-in-chief of enRoute Magazine from 2001 to 2007.
DC Books
Author photo: Jane Heller
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