Oxygen Magazine...Deja Vu???

[ccchance22]

Okay I LOVE this magazine and been a reader for over two years now but is it me or are they recycling cover models?? Granted the ones they use are lovely and have great stories but I would like to see new faces. There are tons of fresh faces in this industry why not use them. Why hasn't Ava Cowan been on the cover,Gina Aliotti,Natalie Benson,Pauline Nordin and countless others...

That's my rant for the day...any of you agree/disagree??? Would love to hear what'd have to say

[twinnett]

I find that they recycle a lot of things...their articles are almost identical every month

[sonti]

Because Oxygen is moving away from the audience that it once had. Girls like Ava and Gina are "too bulky" for the new generation of Oxygen audience. I also find Oxygen photos of Jamie Eason to be much "softer" looking than regular photos of her taken by fans while she's just standing around. Hmmm! Tosca? Well, I won't go there.

Too bad!

[iflyjets]

Because Oxygen is moving away from the audience that it once had. Girls like Ava and Gina are "too bulky" for the new generation of Oxygen audience. I also find Oxygen photos of Jamie Eason to be much "softer" looking than regular photos of her taken by fans while she's just standing around. Hmmm! Tosca? Well, I won't go there.

Too bad!

What are your thoughts on Tosca? I notice she's always got something going on in every issue of Oxygen and I also know that she's married to Robert Kennedy... sometimes it just seems weird that she's always got an article or cover or something each month. It's amazing how she transformed her body and I have her clean eating book, which I always refer to but I've always had an unsure feeling about everything else... maybe it's just me.

[ccchance22]

Because Oxygen is moving away from the audience that it once had. Girls like Ava and Gina are "too bulky" for the new generation of Oxygen audience. I also find Oxygen photos of Jamie Eason to be much "softer" looking than regular photos of her taken by fans while she's just standing around. Hmmm! Tosca? Well, I won't go there.

Too bad!

I noticed that as well,I have actually thought about writing the magazine lol. They should show all sides of this industry,not just the "softer" side of it.

[ives]

I love Oxygen, don't get me wrong (it sure blows Self and Shape out of the water!) but my beef is with the shoddy proofreading. Every month, I notice a few blatant typos. A couple months back, there was a beauty-products spread with numbered pictures of items and then corresponding descriptions in the margin. Half the products were misidentified! There was also a lifting how-to that used the SAME PHOTO for "step 1" and "step 2." Dude... you guys have months to put these things together... PLEASE have someone clever and literate go over it before it goes to press!

I also agree that the Tosca stuff is weird. Sure, she transformed her body, wrote some decent books, and married the publisher of the magazine. She looks good FOR HER AGE, but that doesn't mean 20-somethings are striving to look like her. Do I hope to look like that in 30 years? Sure. For now, give me an Alicia Marie bod. Her columns are written in an obnoxious stream-of-consciousness style; I usually just skip over them. I bought the abs special edition last week and was amused that her photo in the "Oxygen ladies talk about their abs" spread HAD HER LEGS OVER HER ABS, while all the youngins had theirs on display.

[ccchance22]

I love Oxygen, don't get me wrong (it sure blows Self and Shape out of the water!) but my beef is with the shoddy proofreading. Every month, I notice a few blatant typos. A couple months back, there was a beauty-products spread with numbered pictures of items and then corresponding descriptions in the margin. Half the products were misidentified! There was also a lifting how-to that used the SAME PHOTO for "step 1" and "step 2." Dude... you guys have months to put these things together... PLEASE have someone clever and literate go over it before it goes to press!

I also agree that the Tosca stuff is weird. Sure, she transformed her body, wrote some decent books, and married the publisher of the magazine. She looks good FOR HER AGE, but that doesn't mean 20-somethings are striving to look like her. Do I hope to look like that in 30 years? Sure. For now, give me an Alicia Marie bod. Her columns are written in an obnoxious stream-of-consciousness style; I usually just skip over them. I bought the abs special edition last week and was amused that her photo in the "Oxygen ladies talk about their abs" spread HAD HER LEGS OVER HER ABS, while all the youngins had theirs on display.

Hahaha I agree the writing is a little croppy and I feel the articles are repeated 10x over...I'm starting to like "Muscle for Her" magazine a lot better

[MollyD1016]

Hahaha I agree the writing is a little croppy and I feel the articles are repeated 10x over...I'm starting to like "Muscle for Her" magazine a lot better

I like "Muscle for her" too. I am also getting bored with the same articles in "Oxygen" all the time.

[ChicagoChef]

I'm another former Oxygen reader. Had a subscription because at first I really liked it, but then after awhile I found that I was most annoyed by the content and just lost my desire to read it. Unread issues started piling up, still in their plastic.

And don't get me started on Tosca. They make it seem like she did the impossible and truth be told, women all over have done the same thing she has. They just don't have husbands that can give them that kind of exposure. I'm sure she is inspiring to some, and what she did *is* difficult to achieve and requires dedication, but come on. She's just annoying.

[OrchidLady]

I have a subscription and do, overall, like the magazine. But it seems so inconsistent. One issue will be totally worthless and makes me wonder if I should just let the subscription lapse, then the next issue comes out and seems to have a lot of good, useful information in it. It makes me wonder whether they are doing it on purpose to see what kind of feedback they get.

[nextsuperhero]

This should turn into an "Tosca is obnoxious" thread. I wrote Oxygen about the time she used up her ENTIRE two page article to deny having plastic surgery. A TWO PAGE DENIAL! What a waste of fitness magazine space.

On topic, whenever I get a new issue I feel like the cover model just made an appearance a couple months before. I like Hers M&F's models much better, they look stronger & more athletic.
And I'm not surprised Alicia Marie & Eason each got a column, the magazine is just turning into a self-promotion machine. Have you noticed how often they promote everyone of the Eat Clean books in there? They sneak it into so many articles.

[BiancaNoir]

I love Oxygen, don't get me wrong (it sure blows Self and Shape out of the water!) but my beef is with the shoddy proofreading. Every month, I notice a few blatant typos. A couple months back, there was a beauty-products spread with numbered pictures of items and then corresponding descriptions in the margin. Half the products were misidentified! There was also a lifting how-to that used the SAME PHOTO for "step 1" and "step 2." Dude... you guys have months to put these things together... PLEASE have someone clever and literate go over it before it goes to press!

It's been like that ever since the magazine came out, too. The lack of proofreading and the love affair with commas used to drive me crazy.

I stopped reading Oxygen probably a year and a half ago, and I'd read it from the very beginning. What did me in was several months in a row of Publisher's Notes and Tosca columns that were nothing but poorly-disguised anti-obesity rants. I agreed with them to an extent, and I understood the point they were trying to make, but for some reason, it really bothered me. I guess I felt that they were preaching to the choir, and I was tired of hearing it.

I mostly lurk on the Oxygen forums and I think it's amusing that a lot of people who post on the boards no longer read/buy the magazine. I've learned a lot more about diet and training from reading the forums than I ever did from reading the magazine.

[queenofswords]

This thread is rlly interesting- Ive just started buying oxygen in the UK... so far ive read 2 issues- and there is something strangely annoying about Tosca's articles lol. Not sure i could handle another one from her in the next issue.

Im rlly curious about M& F hers cuz im hearing good stuff bout it in the forums but we dont get it in the UK... shame rlly.

[egoatdoor]

Because Oxygen is moving away from the audience that it once had. Girls like Ava and Gina are "too bulky" for the new generation of Oxygen audience. I also find Oxygen photos of Jamie Eason to be much "softer" looking than regular photos of her taken by fans while she's just standing around. Hmmm! Tosca? Well, I won't go there.

Too bad!

I got some insight into the cover issue from this month's issue of Muscle Mag which is also published by Bob Kennedy. Its the 35th anniversary of MM and he wrote a story about the 35 years and what he has learned. One of the things he talked about was that covers make or break an issue. The company makes money on newstand/bookstore sales, not from the subscriber base. A "bad" cover can cost hundred of thousands of dollars in losses, which could take many more months to get back. He almost lost his entire company with one bad cover back in the late 1970s.

So... the cover has to catch the attention of a more mainstream audience plus give a compunction to buy. The Lindsey Messinas, Alicia Maries and Jamie Easons with some ab development, and a bikini friendly body without alot of muscle apparently sell, so they will recycle these models as proven commodities rather than taking a chance on lesser knowns or more "muscular" women. The covers also repeatedly promise "fast solutions" ( like this month's "Firm butt in 22 minutes", "sexy shoulders in 3 weeks") which are meant to catch the mainstreamers' attention and appeal to the generation who wants everything tomorrow.

What are your thoughts on Tosca? I notice she's always got something going on in every issue of Oxygen and I also know that she's married to Robert Kennedy... sometimes it just seems weird that she's always got an article or cover or something each month. It's amazing how she transformed her body and I have her clean eating book, which I always refer to but I've always had an unsure feeling about everything else... maybe it's just me.

Its not a coincidence. Kennedy and Tosca use Oxygen and his other publications like Muscle Mag as promotional vehicles for their books and other enterprises. Muscle Mag this month is full of plugs for his new "Encyclopedia" of bodybuilding.

I have a subscription and do, overall, like the magazine. But it seems so inconsistent. One issue will be totally worthless and makes me wonder if I should just let the subscription lapse, then the next issue comes out and seems to have a lot of good, useful information in it. It makes me wonder whether they are doing it on purpose to see what kind of feedback they get.

I'm probably the only male subscriber. .... It does blow hot and cold. I also don't like the fact that the articles really have very little depth. They are all only 1 or 2 pages of text. Kennedy is also hypocritical to some extent because he preaches consistency and treating bodybuilding as a "lifestyle" in his editorials but then the covers and some of the stories promote those "fast" "get abs in 14 days" types of programs.

This month's issue was pretty good, especially the article on common training mistakes and the one on "Mindfulness" which had to do with the mental side of the game.

[momthebomb]

I'm surprised to hear that people like MF Hers. I only catch it a few times a year, but it doesn't seem that far off from Shape, which really doesn't even touch on fitness.

I also used to read M&F when my husband bought that, but the magazine has totally gone down the toilet in the past 5 or 6 years....

[LindseyMae]

You know, I never subscribed to Oxygen...I always read it at my local barnes and noble over a cup of coffee. I got so annoyed reading Tosca this and Tosca that. I didn't understand why the same woman was being mentioned over and over again. I'd read an article, flit the page and there's an ad for her book, flip the page again and her husband has an article about how great she is. I honestly got so sick of reading about her and her book that I went and GOT the book to see what the hype was about. The book gave me some insight to clean eating. I finally started to understand it due to her redundant style of writing. I've stopped reading it so much out of annoyance and now pick up a men's health or something like that.

[IronCitGrl]

Okay I LOVE this magazine and been a reader for over two years now but is it me or are they recycling cover models?? Granted the ones they use are lovely and have great stories but I would like to see new faces. There are tons of fresh faces in this industry why not use them. Why hasn't Ava Cowan been on the cover,Gina Aliotti,Natalie Benson,Pauline Nordin and countless others...

That's my rant for the day...any of you agree/disagree??? Would love to hear what'd have to say

I would LOVE to see Pauline Nordin in the magazine she is my favorite! I like the magazine and I think they drill some information over an over again. In the august issue I think I counted four or five times that the emphasized that muscle burns more calories than fat. OK! I get it by now!

I was also disappointed when I read an article (also in the aug issue) that said to eat less carbs in the afternoon/evening.

Other than that though it's definitely a better magazine than shape, fitness or self.

[ccchance22]

Wow i'm VERY happy this post picked up!!! How are people suppose to learn if all the info is always recycled...

[vanessa40]

I also use to read Oxygen but i have not bought a copy in about a year. The same thing and over.

[foxbody351w]

My personal fave about Oxygen..since I'm a subscriber..was the article a few months back that really caught my attention...
"No Time? THE ONLY EXERCISE YOU NEED"
Wow!!! Theres only ONE exercise I really need to do? Boy do I have my information wrong...and the article goes on to say that "Your Ultimate Sexy Body Workout" "The Only Exercise You Need"

...and....

it is an f'ing PUSH UP!!! Come on now...you mean to tell me that I dont need any other exercise to get a sexy body? 4 pages to tell me that a bodyweight pushup is going to blast the fat off my stomach and get me ripped and sexy...

what a crock!!!

Oh and this was also the issue that had the article on how to lose 10lbs in just 21 days...lol