DEAR ABBY: I am totally disgusted with magazines these days. I've been keeping a running tally and I refuse to renew subscriptions to magazines that are one-half to three-quarters ADS!
I read my magazines from cover to cover, except for the ads. (My radio, newspaper and television give me all the advertising I can stomach.) Abby, I remember when magazines contained interesting book-length novels that were serialized month to month -- also some wonderful "special offers." Can't you urge the publishers of magazines to bring them back? I realize that ads bring in big bucks, but so do subscription checks! Aren't publishers interested in making their readers happy?
The full-page ads and parts thereof added up to:
May 1991 Ladies' Home Journal, 111 3/4 pages of ads; June 1991 Home, 47 out of 116 (I will renew); June 1991 McCall's, 74 1/2 out of 142; May 1991 Redbook, 92 out of 170; June 1991 Redbook, 52 out of 130; May 1991 1001 Home Ideas, 46 1/2 out of 96; June 1991 Victoria, 34 2/3 out of 126 (I will renew); September 1990 Reader's Digest, 75 out of 237 (I will renew).
Abby, can you add voices to people like me who are calling for a change to these policies? -- BEVERLY GARBER, HARRISONBURG, VA.
DEAR BEVERLY: Now that you've made me "ad" conscious, I counted the number of advertisements in Lear's -- 30 out of 100 pages were ads. (I will renew.)