The print run of Entertainment Weekly is going to be coming to an end while the magazine’s digital presence will continue to live online.
I suppose we all knew this day was going to come. How people get their news is changing. We’re getting it through YouTube, podcasts, and social media. Print media is dying and this is sad for many reasons. I’m Jewish and I don’t use electronics on Shabbos. I turn to books, magazines, and newspapers for this reason and will never own a Kindle or other tablet reader. One constant through the many years was being able to read Entertainment Weekly in print. Since joining the Critics Choice Association in 2019, awards season meant receiving Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Envelope (Los Angeles Times), and The Wrap. But before any of these magazines ever made their way to my mailbox, I could always count on EW. Hell, I even have two large bins full of magazines dating back to 2009!
Without EW, it’s probably unlikely that I would never have started writing about film. Back when I ran The Kentucky Democrat, I would cover movies but mainly the best films at the end of the year. I never wrote reviews regularly until joining the FlickSided writing staff. FlickSided has since merged into Hidden Remote and I hope my writing stays online permanently. One of the most exciting days was when Time, Inc. acquired the FanSided brand and this immediately placed FlickSided within the same umbrella as EW. I would eventually start my own site in 2017 and the rest is history.
Names like Dave Karger, Mark Harris, Nicole Sperling, Anthony Breznican, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Owen Gleiberman (the start of a love-hate relationship with his reviews), Jess Cagle, and Hillary Busis would not be familiar to me if not for the magazine. Every time the magazine arrives, I knew who I could count on when it came to the Oscars. Long before I ever heard of Scott Feinberg, Clayton Davis, Joey Magidson, and many more, Dave Karger was the person I would turn to for Oscar predictions. Dave has been on my list of journalists to meet in person for a number of years. And again, this does not happen without Entertainment Weekly.
Why EW matters to me is it gave me more entertainment news than the local paper (which is ending its Saturday edition). I mean, where else could I get the Sundance recaps that made me excited and jealous? The summer movie preview. Fall movie preview. Awards season and so much more. While I met a number of entertainment journalists during my first Sundance in 2018, I met Nicole Sperling on opening night in 2020. Without reading EW, I would never have been familiar with her name. The same goes for many other amazing journalists over the years.
I met Chris Nashawaty in 2018 when he was in Chicago to promote his Caddyshack book. In all likelihood, I would have attended without being familiar with his writing. Caddyshack is one of the most hysterical films of all time but without reading his work in EW, I might never have checked out the book. EW’s book pages are responsible for my reading a number of books through the years. The Girl on the Train is one of them.
While Entertainment Weekly will live on digitally, it won’t be the same. There’s nothing like rushing to the mailbox to see if the newest magazine arrived. This is what we lose with the transition to digital.
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