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News Fri Dec 10 2010
Chicago-based Venus Zine Ceases Print Publication
Earlier this week we got the sad news that Chicago based magazine Venus Zine will be ceasing print publication, and have also let their editorial staff go. The cause of course is money, as editor-in-chief Jill Russell stated that "Despite our best efforts--and we have done AMAZINGLY well this year on the editorial side, both in print and online--it's become an issue of finances, as always in media."
Some of the Transmission staff also contributed to Venus, so the loss of this publication hit close to home for many of us. The magazine, their home office located in the heart of Lakeview, always gave a nod to our hometown, whether it be showcasing new local acts or using our city and places as the backdrop for photo shoots or a storyline. Hell, we're so smitten with the magazine it even made it onto our gift guide this year before this sad news was announced.
I remember being in high school and making a trek to the local Barnes & Noble to read all the magazines I couldn't afford on my first job (a waitress at Denny's) salary. Before the popularity of the Internet, these magazine were my bible to a world outside of Southern Indiana. I'd sit with my stack of the usual suspects, SPIN, NME, Paste, Bust, and of course Venus. As a young female stuck someplace where I felt I didn't belong, I found a home in the content of Venus. It wasn't the same make-up and flirting tips that graced the pages of Seventeen. It was thoughtful and personal, relevant, and very bad ass to a 16 year old girl.
The death of any publication is always sad, the loss of creative content and the loss of jobs for some outstanding writers and editors. But with it brings the end to a community of readers that looked to said publication for something, whether it be escape, advice, or a common thread. And Venus not only was a community for the readers but contributors as well. I know a handful of writers and photographers that worked for this publication, and it will be sad to see this outlet for their work vanish. Sure, the pool of printed publications will continue to shrink and we'll always have online content, but it's sad to see the end of something that could have been, and was, pretty great. Venus might live on through the Internet, but there won't be anymore teenage girls grabbing a copy off the news stand, flipping through the pages, and feeling like she found a similar voice, a place where she belongs.
Aharona / December 14, 2010 10:18 PM
This is such sad news and a total end of an era! My heart is broken!