A rare editorial by Jerry Brainum

Regular readers of Applied Metabolics know that I'm not big on writing editorials. The main reason for editorials in publications such as magazines and newspapers, is to allow the editor to express his or her opinions separate from the articles in the publication. In other cases, an editorial offers a brief synopsis of what's in the current issue. Frankly, I think that in most cases, editorials are just wasted space and add nothing of value to any publication. I admit to having never read even a single editorial in most of the publications that I've written for over the years. As I said, on those rare occasions when I did read an editorial, it invariably turned out to be a waste of time. So with that in mind, you might be wondering why I'm writing this editorial. I think the only rational reason to write an editorial is if you have something important to say, or if you want to mark a certain occasion. The latter is the reason I'm writing this, since this September issue of Applied Metabolics marks the one year point of the publication's existence.

It's been over a year since I've last written for any magazines. Leaving the magazine world was something I should have done years earlier than when I did. The magazines began a gradual decline with the advent of the economic downturn of 2008. Shortly after that, advertisers, which are the life blood of magazines, began abandoning magazines en masse, which led to greatly reduced budgets for all of the magazines. Some simply went out of business in a style reminiscent of bookstores that were destroyed by the rise of online behemoth sellers, such as Amazon.com. They simply couldn't compete with Amazon, so they closed their doors permanently. The bodybuilding magazines tightened their budgets to the extent that they paid freelance writers little or nothing. The staff writers had little choice other than to also accept considerable pay cuts, but at least they, unlike the freelancers, were still getting benefits and a livable income. So it came to pass that the bulk of articles written for the magazines were submitted by amateurs with little or no knowledge or writing ability. This stark lack of quality was reflected in the magazine content, which grew more dismal with every issue. The magazines became, in effect, merely sales catalogs that highlighted the few advertisers they could still muster. Since the majority of these advertisers were sports supplements purveyors, the articles reflected this, often extolling the virtues of supplements that were worthless--but were sold by advertisers in the magazine. The purchase of magazines continues to drop, as more enlightened readers realize that they are buying what amounts to pages of mostly advertisements for supplements.

While the Internet has the potential to be a great source of information regarding nutrition and exercise, it is sadly disappointing in this . . .