What could be the start of something --- frowned on by veteran professional writers --- is a major content change among women’s magazines when readers start writing most of the material, debuting with the March issue of the 129-year-old Ladies’ Home Journal, notes Grumpy Editor.
LHJ will be the first major mass-market magazine to utilize reader-generated content.
Seasoned past contributors to LHJ are wondering if the trend toward using amateur writers will spread to other Meredith Corp. magazines.
The New York Stock Exchange-listed company also produces Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Fitness, More, American Baby, Every Day with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun.
Veteran writers compare summoning amateurs to fill editorial pages of a well-known magazine with switching a backyard barbecuer to chef at a swank New York restaurant (with entree cost unchanged on the menu) or calling on a junior high school nurse to perform a tricky gall bladder operation.
Seasoned LHJ contributors, who have provided quality articles over the years, see editors straining to obtain publishable material.
Editors’ eyes may be strained, too, in editing copy.
Readers also may notice the difference.
Eyes also will be on LHJ’s future circulation figures --- and advertising revenue.
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