I’m a big fan of Folio.  I read the magazine and get an email newsletter and especially enjoy their coverage of the magazine publishing industry’s attempts to deal with the disruption of web publishing.

But when I was alerted to this self-serving post by Fader mags’ publisher regarding various niche publications folding, perhaps most notably Mass Appeal, I was a bit disappointed.

I was alerted to the post by a fun discussion thread at the hiphop-ads groups but the harshest criticism comes in the comments by anonymous back at Folio:

Seriously? Nice job marketing your mag…

Look, FADER is a magazine put out by a marketing company. its by no means in the same realm as a mass appeal or harp who were actually JUST magazines for a niche audience. FADER is a marketing tool created as an add on for Cornerstone Agency to give their clients something "extra". If the magaine never made a cent in actual sales, it wouldn’t matter because it would be a write off as it was a marketing tool, not a seperate business. Niche magazines flail and scrape by because even though a niche audience is loyal they are SMALL…So lets really look at your qualioty magazine and how its made it as a niche magazine. If it were really a solo business it would have flopped years ago because while its cool, hip, or however you want to market it, its still a NICHE magazine with a VERY small interested group of people.

Good times!