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Post Info TOPIC: cargo magazine done already
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Kate Spade

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cargo magazine done already
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from slate.com


Who Cries for Cargo?
The death of the men's shopping magazine.

By Michael Agger
Posted Thursday, March 30, 2006, at 12:28 PM ET







Cargo magazine coverSomewhere in America, men are sad. Cargo, the magazine that told them what custom jeans to buy and where to find the right shaving lotion, is shutting down. It's the latest men's shopping magazine to fold, preceded by the more upscale Vitals and the more tech-focused Sync. Cargo's May issue will be its last, and then, once again, men will alone, alone on a wide wide sea of gadgets, wheels, and fashion. The pain is still raw, and the question lingers: Did the failure of Cargo lie in its conceit or in its execution?


Back in March of 2004, the answer seemed obvious. Brilliant conceit, brilliant execution. That month, 300,000 ad-laden copies of the premiere issue of Cargo arrived at newsstands, and Condé Nast, the publisher, expected nothing but the best from its bright boy. The previous June, the "metrosexual" had made his debut in the New York Times "Style" section and graduated into mainstream circulation. Men, it appeared, were becoming the new women. Cargo was designed with same DNA as Lucky, the very successful female shopping magazine. With natural slots for fashion, car, and beauty advertisers, Cargo seemed likely to be a layup.


But even from the start, there was a certain fatal queasiness about the magazine's audience. Here's the original publisher, Alan Katz, discussing the first issue: "It's not for any stereotypical man or sexual orientation. After all, the Apple iPod doesn't care who buys it." Huh? The iPod may not care (it's the rare unisex tech device), but it's pointless to suggest that clothes, cars, and beauty products do not carry connotations with them. For a guy, the mere fact of paying attention to your appearance sends a message. As a fashion-forward friend once told me: Most men care about how they look, but only two groups of men will consistently admit to caring about how they look, namely gay men and African-Americans. Cargo would naturally appeal to the younger members of these two demographics, but it also needed these alleged metrosexuals to get on board.


The first issue clocked in at over 200 pages. It was very flippable, graphics-intense, and dotted with those peppy paragraphs, ladled with adverbs, that define the "voice" of a service magazine. (Most readers, I suspect, would be stunned to know how much time is spent crafting those blurbs.) There was a feature about how to fold a shirt sleeve, and a glossy layout of exotic cars. Women were asked to offer their thoughts on cologne. Cargo also sported the most noted feature of Lucky: the stickers that a reader could use to mark the products he or she wanted to buy. C'mon, who were they kidding? The stickers, more than anything else, underscore Cargo's problem. It believed in itself. The smarter approach would have been to pretend not to care.


There were, however, men who took this seriously enough. Cargo's editor, Ariel Foxman (whom I worked with briefly at The New Yorker), spoke fondly of the grateful letters he received from readers. And, incredibly, the Cargo message boards do contain earnest exchanges about whether or not wearing a collared shirt over another collared shirt is attractive or stupid. (Answer: stupid.) But the Cargo nation of males 25-45 never materialized, and advertisers noticed. (The latest February figures show a 32 percent decline in ad pages when compared to the same period last year.) The magazine, backing away from its pure conception as a "shopping guide," began to put celebrities on its cover, hoping for more pop at the newsstand. Sure, celebrities can move copies, but they can also instantly broadcast your lameness. Witness Nick Lachey on the April cover.


Cargo, unfortunately, never felt like a peer, it felt more like your "confused" friend. What's he going to look like today? The magazine veered wildly across the gay/straight divide, often in the same issue: one month asking 866 women to "Reveal the Secrets That Catch Their Eye" and also telling guys how to "Drink Your Way to a Hard Body." Other magazines like Details and Esquire, with longer articles and nonservice content, walk this line with more finesse. Cargo's tone was never right.


Given more time, Cargo may have survived. If MySpace profiles are any indication, today's teenagers, under the influences of indie rock and hip-hop, look like a nation of metrosexuals in training. But I'm certain that most guys won't miss the title, because they already have a men's shopping magazine that they love. It has a circulation of over 4 million, and every month it provides chart-filled articles on cars, appliances, electronics, gardening, personal finance, and health & fitness. Men have been known to pass this magazine along to each other after reading it. They even save copies in boxes in the garage. The name of this august publication: Consumer Reports.



Michael Agger is a Slate associate editor. He can be reached at
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michael.agger@gmail.com

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Hermes

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ok - when I read the mention about Cargo's forum, I had to check it out... a men's fashion forum... hmmmm... not nearly as active as ours


http://boards.cargomag.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1&start=30



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Coach

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I bought this subscription for my husband because he likes to dress good but no longer has the resource of hip single friends to help inspire him.


However, I have been a little disappointed with the magazine itself.  There is some good advice about what's out and in here and there, but for the most part I almost think it is a little too metrosexual for the average man who just wants to look good without attracting too much attention or looking too vain.  I was also turned off by the pricy techie gadgets they are always pushing.  My husband has taken note of some of the current trends, but after about 5 or 6 issues, feels he has already gotten what he needed from it and now just focuses on the celebrity interviews.



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Dooney & Bourke

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that's weird...we just got a thing in the mail asking us to subscribe...hmmmm...


well anyway, my husband bought a few issues and then quickly got sick of it.  from what i saw, i agree with lorelei, it was just too metro (and my hubby is a little metro himself), they had some really goofy shirts that would only look at home in a gay bar or maybe on an under-21 year old.


and i've checked out their forum before because it is just too funny.  they're always yelling at each other over how many buttons to button on their suit jackets (which i think is pretty standard, but whatev).



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Gucci

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I bought it for my brother once (who is quite metro) and he was disappointed there was so much gadgetry. He wanted a mens mag more fashion focused like Lucky.

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Gucci

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My bf, who is pretty metro, didn't like the magazine either.  He was really excited when it first came out, but only read a few issues and said it was repetitive.  He also said there was not enough that interested him- meaning there was very little he would buy that was shown in the mag. 

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