Ladies Home Journal

Sue's Pre-Ramble

A couple of years ago, I was a charter subscriber to Rosie Magazine, edited by talk show host and comedian, Rosie O'Donnell. I loved its quirky humor, and renewed for the best price - four years. Big mistake! Right after that, Rosie had a falling out with the publisher and ceased operation of the magazine. For several months I got nothing. No Rosie, no letter explaining, then I got an issue of Ladies Home Journal in the mail with a tear off sheet telling me this is what I get in replacement for my Rosie subscription.

Ladies Home Journal is the perfect magazine for readers interested in stories about family relationships and how-to articles on fashion, food, and style.

Subscribing/Cost

The cost to subscribe for one year, twelve monthly issues, is $16.97. There are usually several subscription cards in each magazine. Alternatively, they accept online http://www.lhj.com/subscribe and http://www.lhj.com/renew. The current issue (September, 2003) has 204 pages, a fold out front cover and a back cover. Of those, 114 pages (and cover) were advertisements, or 56%. Most ads were full-page or multi-page, very few were half page or less.


Regular Features

Ladies Home Journal is probably best known for its column, "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" The article covers his side, her side, thoughts by a marriage counselor that has been working with the couple, and what they plan to do. The other regular features include:

"Was This Marriage Saved?" (a follow-up to a previously published story),
"How They Met" (ahhhh, how sweet!)
"My Life as a Mom" (written by a mother of twin babies)
"Heart of the Home" (where does the family gravitate to or what room has special meaning for your family? Does our bathroom count?)
"Rituals" (family traditions)
"Habitat Family" (recipients of a Habitat for Humanity house and how it changed them)
"Life Stories" (series of articles about successful women)
"Special Report" (an in-depth, timely article)
"Celebrities" (a couple of celebrity interviews)
"Beauty Journal" (seasonal, what is new?)
"Fashion Journal" (seasonal, what is new?)
"Health Journal" (short (a paragraph or two) articles compile what is new)
"Food Journal" (including cooking and entertaining)
"LHJ.com Highlight" (what is new on their website - freebies and contests)
"Editor's Letter"
"Letters"
"How America Lives" (a full-page photo)


In This Month's Issue

The September, 2003 issue arrived about the first of August. The major themes are autumn and "going back to school." In the latter category is an article on best backpacks, a story about a "back-to-school-eve" family ritual, and a story from Hillary Clinton's new book, "Living History," about the day she and Bill said good-bye to Chelsea at Stanford. Since our son is a college-bound senior, I could really relate to her feelings of having to let go.

The celebrities who are highlighted in September are Stockard Channing and Annette Bening who is featured on the cover. Annette is now a soccer mom of four, who does movies every so often.


What I Like

Being a writer, I appreciate the fact that they accept personal stories for the following columns: "How They Met," "Heart of the Home," and "Rituals," and pay the writers $50 if they are published. I also like that all of the articles are contiguous. In addition, I never have to find the last two paragraphs of an article mixed in with craft directions and baldness remedy ads in the back of the magazine. Also, articles are not usually broken up by too many ad pages. Lastly, there are very few grammatical or typographical errors. I hate reading poorly edited copy! I always read "Life Stories," "Rituals," "Celebrities," and "Food Journal."


What I Don't Like

Just what gets my blood pressure boiling about Ladies Home Journal is that nothing gets my blood pressure boiling! The majority of the articles are well written and presented, but they have no edge. I'm not a big reader of articles about relationship conflict (I'm much too co-dependant and would rather you are all feeling fine), but even I might read them if they weren't so boring. Yikes! Spice it up! Instead of marriages that are failing because she's a control freak, try helping somebody with a real problem. There are couples in Israel, who are being split apart because one spouse is Palestinian and a new law prohibits them from living in Israel for national security purposes. Okay, maybe too extreme. Except for seasonal pictures, I feel like I am reading the same issue every month, over and over. If it were food, Ladies Home Journal would be balloon bread--white, full of air, no nutrients. My life is the same after I finish reading it as it was before--except I've lost an hour I can never get back. There are too many sections that I never read.

Final Recommendation

Ladies Home Journal is a nice magazine with timely articles that are well written. It just doesn't fit my own lifestyle very much and if I were searching for a magazine to fill the void, I wouldn't select it. Maybe I was just partial to "Rosie" magazine, but since I had no choice in this subscription, I will only continue it until it runs out, and will not renew. I do recommend Ladies Home Journal for somebody interested in reading about family relationships and how to work on them. It just isn't my cup of tea. Sue's Acid Test -- what happens to this magazine when I'm finished reading it? I recycle or sell to Half Price Books, all copies of Ladies Home Journal within a week of receiving it.


If you liked this review check out my other magazine reviews --

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Poets and Writers

Recommended: Yes