Core77

As the much buzzed about design publication Monocle wrapped up its first year, "Everyware" author Adam Greenfield felt ready to share his thoughts, now that he's got "a reasonable sense of what the magazine [is]." He points out his major peeves with the mag, clearly bulleted in a one-two punch yet non-ranting style, with a sprinkle of praise at the end (making the ratio of peeves to praise about 15 to 1). He delivers a foreshadowing booya by stating that contrary to its promise, Monocle never felt essential to him.

I'd argue that if I've come to feel as I do - as one of a mere 5,000 charter subscribers, and doubly as someone who must to a fairly close approximation reside center-mass of the Monocle audience in terms of taste, vocation, air miles, etc. - then something's wrong. In this, that piece in BusinessWeek strikes me as getting it just about right: the magazine "is either prescient, or steering sharply toward an audience that doesn't exist."

via unbeige