ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades, profound shifts in information technologies, economies, and markets have transformed the glossy magazine industry. This chapter takes a cultural sociological approach to examining the contemporary magazine industry's digital evolution and some of its implications for magazine workers. It looks at developments at the three largest U.S. magazine publishing companies: Conde Nast Publications, Hearst Publications, and Time, Inc. The magazine publishing industry has historically been characterized as a welcoming career for women; it is a useful context in which to explore the gender-technology-media work nexus. The chapter searches for definitions behind Alanna Gombert's assertions of 'what actually matters' in the work of digitized magazine production. In so doing, it responds to Vicki Mayer's call for 'production studies that consider identity and identification as key factors in future labour struggles'. This chapter shows how magazine production research can shed new light on industrial transformations related to digitization, participatory culture, and the individualization of work.
