SOD

[Soapsuds]

Well once again he deserved the whole cover. Neither he nor Kathryn Hays got one.

[Contessa Donatella]

Of course I'm an old fuddy-duddy since I wish each cover was a onesie - one show, one character, one story or one couple! I am horrified at that picture they used, though, of JvD. Believe it or not, what's on the cover drives sales for in-store purchases. I'm sure there's some corollary to a theorem that the  more shows you can cram on there, the more sales.

[Noel]

I haven't bought a SOD in ages it seems and I can't recall if I've ever seen one in grocery stores. Then again, we're now live with the world at our fingertips with the "inventions" of Instacart, AmazonNow, Google, etc. I'm kind of curious as to how their sales are with only four soaps left.

[Contessa Donatella]

I kinda dread knowing. I have friends who used to work there. He*l I have friends who still do work there. I guess what I do is ... worry.

[Noel]

Interesting. I still talk to former soap writers, but we don't talk much about soaps, lol! But going back to the topic that I started with you at hand, do they still have the features that I used to live for? Like, the thumbs up, thumbs down section? What else did I enjoy? Oh, I liked the mailbox section, performers of the week, and believe it or not, I did the crossword puzzles, lol! I loved those!

[soapfan770]

It’s been ages since I picked up an actual SOD issue but last time I did the mag itself was very flimsy and thin and not much in the way of editorial content anymore aside from Carolyn Hinsey very quietly returned to helm her old opinion column with very zero fanfare, and a lot dedicated to “remember when” stuff. 
 

Circulation wise, last I heard it was just under 100,000 subscribers, a far cry from its 1997 peak when it was creeping up to close to 2 million subscribers. 

[Noel]

That's really sad to hear. Carolyn Hinsey I had no opinion about although I've heard rumors, but that's her life and her story. For me, reading her column felt like she didn't watch all the soaps and her favoritism towards AMC was ridiculous. But no, I used to love reading SOD. It wasn't my hometown newspaper that introduced me to Twin Peaks. Nope, that was Soap Opera Digest and I couldn't be more appreciative. 

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[Contessa Donatella]

The yr after AW went off the air, I was told that they lost 1 mil subscribers. The person who told me, who had reason to know, was not an AW fan but was of the opinion that a significant part of the loss was the loss of AW fans.

I was a big fan of the Editors' Corner that they began to do. With all the regular features, they were insistent there be a balance. Thumbs had to balance, everything had to. So, since it is a business & they have weekly deadlnes, Wed., midday. Everything was pre-assigned. You knew you were doing a thumbs down, for example & that week you were really tickled with your shows. Too bad. Had to turn in a criticism. Like that, applied to all the regular features so they lobbied to get something like Editor's Corner which would be Editor's option what to write.

They each had their TV tuned to a soap all day as long as soaps were on, so in theory everyone watched every soap. Obviously there's a big hole in the bucket, shows are on opposite each other! But, they watch a lot of shows. I thought Hinsey's favorite show was Y&R. She was completely taken with Michelle Stafford who is a friend of hers. I didn't realize she had her column back. Sorta suprising, sorta not.

[soapfan770]

Yeah I think it was around 01-02 when they dropped off pretty significantly. NBC cancelled the SOD awards so they moved it over to SoapNet for a couple years before giving up on it altogether. 
 

I knew Hinsey fell out at InTouch Weekly but not sure when Hinsey came back to SOD. It was in fall of 2020 when I last picked up a copy and I remember reading her “opinion piece” except it didn’t offer any opinion, just her observations. The Jossip thread stuff happened 15 years ago, I suppose she just strays away from all controversy these days. 

[kalbir]

The internet made the soap press obsolete. SOD hasn't been relevant for the better part of the last 20 years.

[Contessa Donatella]

NBC had a 25 yr contract with SOD that just happened to come up then & there was no interest in a new contract. About the same time AOL's contract with SOD came up & there was no interest in a new contract.  AOL had been their chats & message boards. I can't believe it's been 15 yrs since Jossip! Hard to imagine her staying away from controversy. I think she got her book out just in time. Soaps have had such a decline in interest, well, except for nostalgia aka classic soaps, that's still alive & well. And, to her credit, her book is good.

[soapfan770]

Another excellent point. I know back in the 00’s l liked getting soap news from sites like SoapCentral (in spite of my dislike for the boards), SON of course

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 and Soaps She Knows as it was straight up facts. SOD was okay, SID was just tabloid and photos, and SPW was all over the place. Putting Desperate Housewives on the cover was one thing, but putting reality shows like The Hills, Jersey Shore, and yes American Idol (“it’s like a soap!” as I clearly remember) on the cover instead of actual scripted soaps was ridiculous. 
 

That’s interesting I didn’t know that about NBC’s contract expiring. I do remember it was about the same time NBC was complaining about Daytime Emmys over their line-up had been shutout of the nominations. I’m not sure why as Passions was just silly and what was airing on Days at the time was really really bad. After that NBC never aired the Daytime Emmys again.

[dragonflies]

SOD and SID  subscriptions are f*cking expensive, that's another reason why they've lost subscribers as well

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, everyone knew that the Emmys had a bias against DOOL & they resented it. Some people even called it a Curse. Wooh-wooh. Weekly was good, to me, until they ousted Mimi Torchin & escorted her out of the building. Then, they were truly lost.

[soapfan770]

Per Wikipedia:

 

Soap Opera Digest's circulation has declined over the years, reflecting both a decline in soap opera viewership and a decline in magazine circulations in general. A 40 percent decline in 2003 was due to eliminating reduced-rate subscriptions.^[5]This is a list of Soap Opera Digest's average circulation per issue, per year.

1988: 1.1 million[6] 1998: 1,101,146[7] 1999: 1,102,940[7] 2000: 1,110,527[8] 2001: 1,025,869[8] 2002: 987,525[9] 2003: 598,739[9]

2004: 524,358[10] 2005: 495,552[10] 2006: 517,743[11] 2007: 512,403[11] 2008: 514,094[12] 2009: 498,234[12] 2010: 490,310[13]

• 2016: 123,000^[14]
• 2019: 71,406^[15]
• 2021: 57,090^[1]