The really trendy stuff is in Elle’s Green Issue, which is the only one of the genre where the color of Kermit does not actually grace the cover, except, of course, in Mandy Moore’s seductive eyes. For shoppers, this is definitely the place to go; nowhere will you find more information on eco-friendly clothing, home, beauty care and hygiene products. The surprising exception to consumer-oriented fluff is a feature questioning undeclared Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s apparent reconciliation with the green ideology. The conservative mastermind of the GOP takeover of Congress in the 1990s is now publishing an “environmental treatise” called Contract With the Earth, which features a forward by famed conservation biologist E.O. Wilson. Fortunately, Bill Lambrecht’s skeptical exposé does not give Newt a free pass on what is thus far mostly lip service, concluding that Newt’s greenness is still up in the air.
But the greenness of the press, at least a significant part of it, is no longer in doubt. The nearly overwhelming volume of environmental coverage in April alone is a welcome development. But we hope this is not just modish behavior on the part of the media. An avalanche of Green Issues can seem a little like bandwagon-jumping at times, especially when there is a lot of overlap in the coverage and an increasing amount of the ink is going toward consumer news, but patience on the part of readers will pay off. From Fortune to Elle, the offerings are littered with emeralds worth digging up.
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It would be interesting to know how well these issues did on the news stands, compared with green covers in years past. And how many ad pages these issues held, compared to respective magazine averages. The business of journalism has a lot to do with these cover issues. Green has become this new marketing tool everywhere you look, journalism included, let's not forget.
Posted by Roger Foghorn on Tue 17 Apr 2007 at 12:14 PM