A Magazine for All Asians?

As I grew older I found magazines that catered to my changing interests - Popular Photography, Stereophile, Musician, Rolling Stone - the names explain the focus of each publication. I also have always loved the weekly and monthly magazines that give more insight into news than the daily paper: LIFE, of course, was the king of this kind of magazine, with its emphasis on photography, but also Newsweek, Time, and lighter publications such as People and Entertainment Weekly. More recently I've been inundated with magazines that mirror my career, such as Internet World, Wired and Fast Company.

These days, I find less and less time for magazines, because my life is full and frankly, because I get much of the information and analysis I need on almost any topic I choose from the Internet.

But one magazine just went bankrupt, and though I wasn't a subscriber, I've followed its progress and picked up issues when I saw them, and I'm saddened by its passing. aMagazine wasn't perfect, but it was one of the very few in the US that bothered to aim itself squarely at people like me - Asian Pacific Americans.

The magazine described itself as "inside Asian America," and on a broad level, that's what it tried to do. But the problem with trying to appeal to all of Asian America was that aMagazine couldn't decide whether it should be like People or Vanity Fair, mainstream celebrity-driven or high-culture, serious journalism.

aMagazine tried to be all things to all APA people. The August/September 2001 issue, for instance, features martial arts star Jet Li on the cover, and includes an interview with him about his film The One.   The issue also has stories on prominent Asians in America, short news bites about issues that concern APAs, arts and entertainment reviews and interview stories, cultural commentary, some travel articles, a flashy fashion spread and an "advertorial" piece on an awards ceremony sponsored by the magazine with photos of APA celebs and powerbrokers posing with magazine staffers at a posh banquet.

But its political coverage and journalism wasn't hard-hitting enough for activist APAs, and its celebrity-driven entertainment coverage wasn't enough to keep readers interested. Its high-end advertising may have alienated some readers who felt the magazine was aimed at younger, richer, or more educated demographics. I always found some things in each issue that interested me, yet it just didn't connect with me as a whole.

aMagazine was started by Jeff Yang in a Brooklyn apartment, out of a Harvard campus APA magazine he created. Although the magazine lost money for 13 years, it was still struggling along, increasing its national profile with every issue. As it turned out, it took only one year of an alliance with an Internet company to bring it down in the end.

Like it or hate it, aMagazine had become by its folding the pre-eminent mainstream voice for young APAs, with a circulation of 200,000 published every two months.

But the magazine was puzzled by the rise of the Internet, and couldn't decide what to do with its online version. Whenever I visited the site, it was more of a teaser to get you to buy the magazine instead of a destination on its own, with content worth clicking to. In January of 2001, aMagazine entered into a partnership with a Web company, Click2Asia.com, which was flush from cash during the heady days of the Internet boom, to merge their Web sites. But the timing was lousy - the boom turned to bust in 2001, and by last fall, founder and CEO Jeff Yang had left his creation to start a marketing company. Click2Asia finally gave up this winter and closed both its Web site and aMagazine.

I recall flipping through other publications aimed at APAs in the past - the name Trans-Pacific seems to come to mind - but they were forgettable. I've never seen the more alternative magazine Yolk. There are several other publications that serve smaller niches than aMagazine tried to reach within the APA population: Gidra for news and politics, dIS*Orient for poetry and literature, Giant Robot for anime, manga and other cutting edge pop culture. There are also Web sites that still serve the broad APA audience that Click2Asia tried for: Asian Connections and Goldsea among them.

But even if aMagazine's mix of editorial coverage did click with readers, would it have ever been able to serve an audience as broad as the one covered by the umbrella term "Asian America?" I'm all for building bridges between APA communities because I think Japanese should learn more about the Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, etc. and vice versa. But I wonder if that spirit can be truly captured in one publication and appeal to all APA subgroups. I wonder if the future of APA media might not be one of niches that are served by smaller, less grandiose magazines. Despite its flaws, though, aMagazine will be missed. It had an impact, and like it or not, many APAs knew of it. That's an accomplishment in itself.

The fact is, APAs are a significant and growing population, and therefore a legitimate target that is ripe for a publication with broad appeal. It seems to me that now is the time to launch a new national magazine that can attract APA readers with its news, insightful commentary, deep arts and entertainment coverage, cultural Catholicism and a cool slick look that isn't too cool or too slick.

Hey! I can run a magazine like that! Anyone have a few million dollars they want to invest?