I first found Taste of Home on a magazine rack in Lewiston, NY. I was on my way to England via Toronto and wanted something to read on the plane. Wee, this was fun! A magazine with no advertising that was all about food. It had lots of cornball--but fun--sidebars, like "My Most Embarrassing Moment In The Kitchen," stuff kids got wrong (like saying a teacher's name was Miss Salad Bar instead of Miss Salazar), ridiculous menus that could "feed your family for $1.35 a plate" (yeah, if you had most of the spices in stock and had a family of 6-8).
Every issue was good for at least an hour or two of pure reading pleasure. And the recipes were easy, with only a few ingredients. (And they always featured a page or two of cooking for one or two, which is great if that's the size of your family.)
We ended up subscribing to a bunch of these Reiman Magazines. And on a business trip, we even stopped and checked out the home base in Greendale, Wisconsin.
And then, as always happens when something is successful and bucks the trends, they got offered a big pile of money and got bought out. In this case, to Readers Digest. It wasn't long before Taste of Home went right down the toilet--IMNSHO.
All the cute, fun, cornball stuff was gone. Gone were My Mom's Best Meal, and the like. Everything that made the magazine(s) charming and unique was gone. They decided to aim at a bigger demographic than just farm wives. (Hey, I wasn't a farm wife, and I enjoyed it.) It became just another slick magazine and I stopped renewing. That's why I buy up every old issue of the magazine I can find at yard sales. Okay, I now own three copies of some issues, but when you buy them for pennies a copy, what's the difference?
This whole situation reminds me of how Coca-Cola miscalculated when they decided to dump their successful Coke for New Coke. Consumers let them know in a hurry what a big mistake that was. Only so far it seems like Readers Digest won this round. They may have found new readers, but I'll bet they lost a heck of a lot of their reader base, too.
What have you enjoyed that was ruined by improvements?
Hi Lorna I understand completely. I subscribe to Birds and Blooms, Birds & Blooms Extra, Country, Country Extra, Country Woman, Farm & Ranch Living and Taste of Home. I have had subscriptions to some of these magazines since the beginning. Kept them all in boxes, hubby thought I was nuts but I said I might want to look at them again, such beautiful pictures and stories and recipes. I did not know about Reader's Digest taking over. No wonder they do not look the same.
ReplyDeleteI thought Reader's Digest went bankrupt. Or is it just one of those deals where they go bankrupt and stay in business? Who knows? All I know is lots of products I buy in the grocery store or entrees I like in restaurants disappear. I think the feeling is that we all have the attention span of a gnat so they have to change everything constantly.
ReplyDeleteIs that what happened to TOH! Like you, I used to subscribe but find it useless now.
ReplyDeleteIt was subtle, but when one day the issue came and looked so drastically different, I went straight to the masthead and there was my answer. It was no longer published by Reiman Publications but by Readers Digest.
ReplyDelete"New and Improved" eh? My foot! Totally agree with your blog. I've lost count of the times I found a product I loved, used until it couldn't be used any more, went back to the store for another only to be met with, "Oh, that was discontinued (insert number of months/years here). But we have a new and improved model!" And every time I tried that "new and improved" product, I ended up throwing up my hands and vowing never to buy that piece of #$%@ again. Glad to hear about your wonderful find!!
ReplyDeleteI also miss the old TOH. The 'ruined by improvements' that leaps to my mind comes from another blog I read recently on the subject of raw vs. processed milk. We have a great dairy farm near here with an ice cream store, petting zoo, etc. The ice cream is made on site and was always made with raw milk. It was beyond wonderful. Then the regulators came in and said they couldn't use raw milk - it was a health risk. The new improved processed ice cream is still pretty good but it's not the same.
ReplyDeleteI used to subscribe to TOH and the last few issues I noticed are crap. I wonder why they changed. Glad I'm not the only one who thought that.
ReplyDeleteI subscribed for years but stopped my subascription last year. Why do things have to change. It is not always for the better.
ReplyDeletePatti