The hard copy newsagent magazine market continues to be hit hard with inroads by the on-line alternatives and news has come to hand that one of the most vibrant of all, 'Dolly' is closing early 2017.
News.com reported that former Dolly editor Lisa Wilkinson (Today host) claims the closure was 'inevitable'. For 46 years Dolly has been available to the market place and that market place has largely been teenage girls.
Wilkinson who was the magazine's youngest ever editor at 21 said, "It was a bible for teenage girls. There'll be a lot of women around the country who will feel a tinge of sadness to see the passing of a magazine that was at the centre of their teenage years."
1970 saw Dolly hit the stands and became known for frank stories on sex, relationships and bodies and regular features like Dolly Doctor. Circulation last month was down to 28,030 whereas 4 years ago it was over 90,000.
Marina Go writing in News.com after the announcement of the Dolly magazine's closure says that the success on-line Dolly meant the eventual closure of the magazine and reminisced how at 13 years of age was her own introduction to Dolly.
When editor way back in February 1994 Dolly hit 220,000 copies sold monthly! Growing up Marina Go said it was the guide to answers for female body changes let alone the advice on relationships, sex and the rest of it.
1990's
These were the years our four children were in their teenage years and finishing high school and occasionally I'd see Dolly at home as our family was not prude or silly about such things. We'd seen the results of many a Christian home where everything of this nature was banned and later discovering the dramas of a variety of unplanned family outcomes.
But when such magazines set out chapter and verse of the techniques of providing the boyfriend the delights of the flesh, I considered that inappropriate and 'too much inappropriate information' (as it were).
Giving relationship advice, offering basic facts, stating the obvious was one thing, but passing the line, to what I considered soft porn was quite another. We had many family discussions and our church youth groups handled such issues with aplomb.
Christmas 2016
46 years years after Dolly was launched it is closing its doors. What will doctor's and dentists' waiting rooms do for magazines now? There might be some weeping and gnashing of teeth I dare say, but in many Christian homes the announcement comes as a bit of a Christmas gift, one less drama to deal with.
The Christmas message sadly gets lost and sidelined with such, albeit, magazines are not the only source of this today, on-line soft porn and worse is freely available.
The new born Christ, set in a manager, in the simplest and lowliness of circumstances is a far more profound message to our lives, our families and our society and if anything, this 'Christmas 2016' needs celebrating.
As strange is it seems, there have been more deliberate community Christmas celebrations of this kind this year than I have witnessed for many a year. Perhaps there is a message in this for our society.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html