Change it back!
A review of Southern Living Magazine, September 16, 2008
Submitted by: Brittany from Kodiak, AK

Born and raised in Georgia, I was infuriated to find that my newly opened subscription had been changed to a smaller, non-intriguing, take-me-back-to-my-roots magazine!   I've been stationed in Kodiak, AK for the U.S. Coast Guard for a year and having not seeing the magazine, I thought I had been ripped off by a knock-off when I received my first copy!  I'm 5,000 miles away from home and extremely disappointed! CHANGE IT BACK!

SOUTHERN LIVING MAGAZINE
A review of Southern Living Magazine, August 26, 2008
Submitted by: padowd from Decatur, Al

I am very disappointed in the new format of this magazine.I have always loved this magazine and bought it every month for years but I will not do so anymore.It was, I felt like ,one of the best on the market but not anymore.I would love to see it go back like it was.I feel like I am not alone in this by reading all the reviews.Maybe someone from Southern Living will notice and change it back.I feel like they have made a big mistake.

What Happened!
A review of Southern Living Magazine, August 5, 2008
Submitted by: Pam from Jacksonville, FL

I thought there must be a new editor when I saw the "new"  Southern Living.    I could not believe the transformation.  Who is the target audience?  Elementary children? 

Let's start with the cover.  The beautiful, well designed, vibrantly colored photo is a thing of the past.  The page layout in the magazine looks like something my college journalism class would have done in magazine design/layout 101.  The use of primary color in the form of broad lines to disect pages into squares and rectangles  allowing for fewer words on a page and a simpler look is juvenile.  As is putting colored boxes around page numbers. 

Color in the magazine is now dull and lifeless.   Changing the magazine size and binding (staples which gave it a nice rounded, sophisticated look and feel to glue) just make it like any other cheap magazine out there.  

The glorious recipes and food section SL is so known for are all but gone.  The decorating "stories" look like cheap ads.  I used to imagine how nearly everything featured in SL would look in my house and got many decorating ideas from SL.  Take August 2008 issue for example.  There is not one thing on the cover (a mish mash of unattractive items) or inside that I would even consider displaying or using in my home. 

A full page ad is now on every other page.  There are few or no  stories consuming consecutive pages.  The pages at the back of the magazine that list places to buy items has been elimnated. 

What is the need to put the writer's name now in large bold type at the top of the page?  It is distracting.  The new font is very uninteresting.  And last but not least, why get rid of "Southern Journal"  the always inspirational and thought provoking last page of SL?    "Life in the South" has turned the last page into a brief blub with two short paragraphs and again the red line, box, and dot to take up space. 

Southern Living was once one of the country's best written, designed, photographed, and informative magazines.   Now it has joined the ranks of other written medium and has become simple, plain and boring.  By changing to this painfully basic, simple and dull format, SL has insulted its readers and the intellgence of the American people.  Please,  do you really think your readers are this simple?  I am truly saddened and will miss Southern Living very much.  After 20 years of loving this magazine, I will no longer subscirbe, buy or give  Southern Living magazine.  I can only hope it will return to its former stylish and classy form.

A review of Southern Living Magazine, July 25, 2008
Submitted by: young nana from Hattiesburg, MS

I have finally decided to express my TOTAL disappointment and dismay in the 'new' Southern Living Magazine-the so-called 'new' format, the content, the horrifically horrible recipes, as well as the now rapid encroachment on the recipe section so that now it is almost non-existent!  I am just sick about this.It had never been an all-decorating book before. I have always looked forward to this magazine; now I finish looking it over and feel furious. IF I WANTED NORTHERN RECIPES FROM PEOPLE IN PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN, ETC., I WOULD SUBSCRIBE TO TASTE OF HOME. Who on earth is now new and different as editor(s) and deciding the content.?The recipes, touted as 'healthy.' are repulsive. It has to be  be influence of  people NOT from the South and  a great deal looks like all masculine input!!! I am now considering cancelling my subscription as well as the annual gifts of Southern Living and I so regret that - I just do not want to do that. Why spend money on something no longer enjoyable? I am not alone. We have discussed this many times at work in past few months and social gatherings and we all concur. You have gone too too far in 'extending' the South.

new foremat so ordinary, not as Southern Living in the past
A review of Southern Living Magazine, April 3, 2008
Submitted by: Carolyn from Paris, TN

As a subscriber for 32 years, I dislike very much the new format of the magazine.  So ordinary; not as Southern Living in the past.