Nylon Print is Back
the print magazine renaissance is upon us
Nylon announced last week that their print magazine will be returning in April 2024. Traditional magazines, alongside CDs and television, succumbed to the digital age, but unlike many pop-culture icons, print has been remembered fondly. I recently had a TikTok blow up that showed me flipping through a September 2006 issue of Vogue, which featured Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette on the cover. My comments section is full of “I WISH,” “I used to have this,” and “sleep with your window open at night bestie.” The nostalgic love for magazine culture might’ve been enough to bring it back.
Founded in April of 1999, Nylon started off as a magazine that covered indie and underground culture. In celebration of their 25th anniversary, they’re bringing back print with their yearly Music issue. They say we can expect “a revival of beloved print franchises, original reported stories, great fashion, and your favorite global music artists, all with an emphasis on new and emerging culture.” Hopefully, that means they’ll keep the Kardashians off their covers.
Something tells me that print magazines are coming back in the same way that vinyl, typewriters, and polaroids were brought back in the 2000s and 2010s. Every generation takes an antiquated form of media and reimagines it into something that eventually defines them. I saw a video of someone recording a concert with an iPod on TikTok the other day. If iPods, digital/flash photography, and wired headphones are suddenly cool again, I think it's safe to say print magazines are another relic that the youth will claim as their new retro.
While older Gen-Zers and baby millennials might be the most enthusiastic participants in this revival, I think even the younger half of Gen-Z and the elder members of Gen Alpha will find themselves drawn to print magazines. Gen Alpha is already seeing their reflections in figures like North West on (digital) magazine covers. I wouldn’t be surprised if some kind of print publication emerges that is geared toward these kids. Even if it takes the form of something that's not meant to be read, but just looked at… I hear these kids don’t read as much as we did.
Nylon's decision to adopt a bi-annual schedule hints at a shift in the essence of the print magazine. Magazines in the 2000s and 2010s continued to produce monthly issues even as the internet caught up and eventually surpassed them in influence. Given the pace of news and trends today, this could be a chance for print magazines to be reborn as something artistic, still and beautiful, era-defining — kind of like a painting. In a world where trends move so rapidly, I’d love these print pieces to center things that truly capture our moment in time. Is that even possible?
Anywho, what do you think Nylon’s new era of print is going to look like? What other magazine would you like to see come back? I wouldn’t mind a Fruits resurgence.
Sources
https://www.nylon.com/life/nylon-print-return-april-2024
https://fashionista.com/2017/09/nylon-magazine-shutters-print-edition