nova gone to dogs (Nova)

Name: jellybeads

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Product:	Nova
Date:	19/03/01 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: mmm... lovely fashion and illustrations

Disadvantages: hypocrisy and drivel

Ohmagod! How could a magazine deteriorate so much in such a short space of time? I never read the original Nova (being about -15 years old then), but from what I heard of it and the calibre of its groundbreaking articles and editorial, I am deeply embarrassed for whoever thought it would be a clever idea to bring it back.

Nova is a glossy women's magazine, aimed roughly at the 18-30 age group. It bases its editorial around fashion, with a few burning issues, entertainment reviews, and lifestyle stories thrown in for good measure.

I bought the first issue of the new Nova, and was only a little disappointed. Here was a magazine that promised honesty, quality, and no bull. The fashion pages were good (always my first port of call), the photography interesting and different, and the articles witty and irreverent.

My personal favourite was a short piece on the eternal 'sit or hover' toilet debate, something I myself had long pondered (hmm?). It was factual, succinct, and amusing. Compare to this the burning issue in a recent Nova: Imagined Ugliness Syndrome.

Now, I had difficulty explaining this to my good friend Jules, so I'm probably going to falter here, but here goes. IUS is as its name suggests a syndrome where people imagine they're ugly.

This is worrying, when the people concerned are so convinced of their own hideousness that they cannot leave the house, and may be driven to suicide. However, the way the article was written was poor, providing little factual information, little scientific evidence to back up it's sob stories, and, frankly a little unnecessary. It made the sufferers sound like vain hypochondriacs while intending to be sympathetic. That sounds a bit harsh, but if you were to read it, I think you might agree.

The fashion, too, has gone from interesting, different and near cutting edge to been-there-seen-it-in-The-Face-two-months-ago. The ph
otography is still lovely, and the illustrations (of which there are many) are bee-oo-tiful. My favourite bit.

The former editor, Deborah Bee left recently, and her male replacement (I can't remember his name as I have refused to buy this month's on the grounds of pap-ness) has done funny things to the layout. The funny things are not good, although I'm probably biased because I liked the old layout so much.

Nova is still out of the mould of traditional women's glossies, but it's straying dangerously close to it, and I'm dreading the day it falls in. I've moved on the unisex titles like Sleazenation and The Face, although unfortunately in doing so I have lost out on one of the things that made Nova fun: the girliness of it all.

Summary: