Saturday Short: Au Revoir Southern Accents

Posted by on

Sniff...sniff... there were a lot of sighs and angry words around the Roundtable when we chatted about the closing of Southern Accents Magazine. Class and originality is slowly sifting out of the shelter magazine rack and folks we've been lucky enough to get to know - such as the kind and, yes, gracious Miss Southern Living herself Karen Carroll - are being personally affected. Jobs lost, lives upturned. It's just numbers for some, but it's personal for the rest of us - from the readers who wait by their mailboxes to the designers, architects, artists and photographers whose work has graced these pages, to the staffs who put their heart and soul into each publication. Requiescat in pace - Southern Accents.



Click here to listen to our June 2009 chat with Karen Carroll, editor-in-chief, Southern Accents.

Comments

Terry said…
A bit different listening the 2nd time. Best wishes to Karen Carroll and family.
August 15, 2009 at 6:39 PM
Teacats said…
Makes me so out-and-out mad too! Yes -- its the numbers -- but it is the numbers being paid to the high-and-mighty executives at Time Inc.! Sure -- ad dollars may be thin right now -- but their choice to shut down a 14-person operation -- and close an excellent magazine with a great and wide-reaching influence is simply short-sighted. Perhaps if they had actually EXPANDED the magazine to include MORE hardcover books -- maybe a series on decor and design issues and ideas? As well-evidenced by wonderful bloggers like yourselves -- there would have been LOTS of popular topics to be covered -- and an eager audience ready to buy the books! All best wishes to Karen Carroll and her staff -- and many thanks for such a wonderful magazine! Frankly my dears -- we all DO give a damn! sigh.


Jan at Rosemary Cottage
August 15, 2009 at 8:44 PM
cotedetexas said…
Thank you Jan, well said.
Joni
August 15, 2009 at 9:51 PM
LIBERTY POST EDITOR said…
The sad reality is this: how do we support all the young people who are dreaming of working for a magazine? It seems those days are dwindling. This was a class act publication. Karen was 'the voice' of SA. The internet is changing everything. Everything.
August 16, 2009 at 3:06 PM
"Blossom" said…
So sad.......Another great thing going to the wayside. Sometimes you like to see things, feel it and touch it. I don't understand, we have let the internet do this to us. Our children are using other tools that don't let them think. I guess all this will pass.......but for how long!
August 17, 2009 at 7:46 AM
Anonymous said…
Something about this wonderful magazine being shut down by the big bad powers at Time feels a bit sexist to me.

Love your passion for the magazine biz and now I want to know more about what happened behind-the-curtain at Domino. Think you could rustle up an interview from an ex-employee?
August 18, 2009 at 11:53 AM
The Antiques Diva™ said…
Another interesting post... I thought the comments on cost of a photo shoot were quite interesting given a recent experience I've had with this. I'll be appearing in an upcoming issue of a US-based magazine (no names mentioned for the moment) and had an interesting experience during the weekend we were putting the article together. As it happened, the antique shopping tour with magazine appointed staff/writers took place one weekend and the magazine actually scheduled their desired photographer to come overseas to a week later to take the pictures to accompany the article without accompanying the tour guides (myself and another lady). Over the last month as the magazine editors have been putting the final touches on the upcoming issue I've been receiving urgent emails from the editors - "Who is this person?" or "What store is that?" regarding the photographs, but because the photographs were not taken on the tour neither the writer or others involved in the tour are able to answer the magazines questions!!! Seeing the organization behind the scenes on putting a major piece together for one of America's top magazines has been a major eye opener for me and a lesson learned in coordinating tour details with media outlets!

Losing Southern Accents is a tragedy! It's one of my all time fav publications!
August 19, 2009 at 4:33 AM
Susan (Between Naps On The Porch.net) said…
Hi Joni, Linda and Megan, This is all very upsetting...to lose the magazines we've all enjoyed for years. It's like a good friend has up and moved right out of our lives. I know the economy is a HUGE factor...maybe the biggest factor. But I think decorating blogs have had a big impact. With so many wonderful resources and inspiration online, it's hard to justify the expense of a mag. subscription...not to mention...dealing with storage of them. I personally agonize over tossing them out...but am always reluctant to rip my favorite pages out, too.
Newspapers have been suffering for years...even before the down turn in the economy. Again, most everyone I know gets their news and weather online these days.
The one thing we can always count on to stay the same is the fact that "Nothing stays the same." Everything is always evolving, changing. I hope Southern Accents does come back one day...maybe even bigger and better. Sorry, Joni...wish I had words to make you feel better. :-(
August 23, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Bargain Decorating with Laurie said…
I remember being shocked when Ms. Carroll said, in her interview, that Southern Accents' office staff consisted of 14 people. For such a gorgeous production, I would have thought it took legions of people in an office somewhere to produce that magazine. My thought was that this was a co. who knew their stuff and had hired the right people to make it work without paying a huge # of employees. I know I need to change with the times, but I cannot imagine receiving as much pleasure seeing decor on line as I did looking through the pages of S.A. I am so crushed by this closing that I couldn't even come listen to this R.T. discussion when you first posted it. I feel a great loss over this closing - not just of decor, but of beauty. laurie
August 25, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Post a Comment