SOD is ending it's weekly print edition

[Paul Raven]

@JAS0N47 amazing! Will take some time to go through all of that. Deidre Hall,Susan Lucci on the cover the most I think?

[Errol]

So, Stephanie Sloane has been credited with the B&B November, DAYS November and GH November Sweeps preview posts, but she physically posted none -- byline says Stephanie, but the link over said name points to another WordPress user.

Ironically, the Y&R November Sweeps preview post was likely written by Stephanie, but Devin Owens is the author of the online post. It could be that Stephanie likely wrote it, but he forgot to credit her, or he did the Y&R one instead of her. That said, Mara Levinsky physically posted the B&B and GH November preview, crediting Stephanie. Chris Eades posted the DAYS November preview but credited Stephanie -- I previously stated he posted the DAYS/GH ones on Saturday, but now it looks like he posted the DAYS one and Mara posted the GH one. Overall, Stephanie has these posts showing her being the author, but none of them were physically posted to the site by her even though she does have her own account (https://www.soapoperadigest.com/author/ssloane/). Her last properly credited (published with her name under her account) was the Kyle Lowder interview, posted on October 25, two days before the announced shutdown of the weekly print magazine. She does have a bio page with a bio image, however.

The Winsor Harmon/Ashley Jones story I previously noted as credited to Stella Bednarz was actually published on the site by Chris Eades.

Carolyn Hinsey is credited with her opinions post, published today, but Mara is the one who physically published it to the site. It appears to be a new Opinion post by Carolyn, btw.

Details from the Hot Plots Preview section in the most recent (and final) weekly issue were published on the site. For the first time, we find out who actually wrote those since the print magazine never credited a specific writer with a byline for those. Mara posted the GH Preview (Esme Wants to Move Out) while Janet posted the DAYS Preview (Chad Meets Everett). Regarding a post from the recent Late-Breaking News section, Stephanie is credited with the DAYS Preview (Li Is Murdered), but again, it was not posted to the site by her. Credited to her name, but this time the SOD account is linked (https://www.soapoperadigest.com/author/SOD/).

Thus far, only Mara, Stella (via Chris Eades posting it) and Devin have been posting actual new content that wasn't previously found in a recent or current issue of the now-defunct weekly magazine. The site appears to have completely abandoned the "Five Things That Happened" in Soap History and Birthday Spotlight posts, which are considered throwaway content for when you have nothing better to post on your site. Just "My Opinion." Then again, they might start them back up again once they are no longer publishing stuff from older issues.

ON A RELATED NOTE:

I recently had back-and-forth conversations through email with a digital magazine distributor (I won't name them) about the Soap Opera Digest situation (52 issues per year to 4 per year), and in my opinion, they are playing stupid, fast and loose.

They are telling me the "good news" in that digital subscriptions to the magazine will continue, but instead of getting 52 issues subscribers will only get 4, which they acknowledge I already knew. "For customer's who have an existing subscription they will continue to receive the new issues as they are delivered," I was told.

In theory that makes sense, but if you pre-paid for a subscription and it goes from 52 to 4 per year, are they really going to make subscribers believe they will now have five more years of a magazine subscription if they had say 20 issues (4 per year x 5 years) remaining on said subscription? Or even as many as ten years or more if they recently subscribed to Soap Opera Digest? I do not believe that for a second, especially since the Variety article stated the magazine would print four special issues yearly. I quote, "The company plans to continue publishing special print issues of Soap Opera Digest four times per year." Keyboard is "special."

Speaking of that word, here's what the unnamed company told me on that matter. "Please note that Special issues will not be apart of the subscription." Hence why I said they are playing "stupid, fast and loose" with the situation.

 

Just more of my ramblings. All of which are my personal opinions and do not represent those of Soap Opera Network.

[janea4old]

That interview is interesting in that it is a summary of the second half of the the Digest podcast interview with Kyle back in September.  (The podcast talked about storylines airing then and other parts of his life. And then the second part of the podcast was about him leaving acting, moving to the Lake Tahoe region to be near his daughter, and getting a job as news anchor there.)  The article in the print issue in October  and then on the website -  is a summary of everything he said in the podcast about why he moved and what his daily routine is like now, so it was not really "new", but it was newly typed.

Edited November 7, 2023 by janea4old

[Errol]

Thanks for pointing that out. I don't generally listen to podcasts in the traditional sense so I wouldn't have had a clue -- I prefer my "podcasts" to be video-based since it keeps me focused and there are visuals of what they are talking about.

I love your insight, btw!

[janea4old]

They did that with this article in August interviewing Sharon Case
https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-yrs-sharon-case-interview/

It's a summary of one section of what she said on the podcast in June.

[Errol]

I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!

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[Contessa Donatella]

That's marvelous! WHAT? 

[Errol]

Patience is a virtue. 

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[Contessa Donatella]

Most of the time I have infinite patience. Other times I have "this much".     

[Errol]

EXCLUSIVE: a360Media Transferring Soap Opera Digest Subscriptions to Woman’s World Magazine 

So, this is why I said the unnamed digital magazine distributor was playing stupid, fast and loose when I spoke with them. They either knew nothing or spoke to the wrong people. As of today, they even told me, "we are still waiting for the new calendar from the publisher's side and once we have all the details setup the marketing team will be removing the 52 issues and will be changed to 4 issues," when I asked why they are still allowing people to purchase subscriptions to Soap Opera Digest, especially when their site lists 52 issues as the amount you'll receive throughout the subscription.

Additionally, they said, "In regards to the special issues we do not have information on the release dates and if the publisher decides to include them as part of the 4 issues they will be apart of the subscription."

Like how dense must you be?

[BoldRestless]

Well I hope they let their subscribers get refunds. I don't subscribe to SOD anymore, but definitely would not be interested in Women's World Weekly.

[Contessa Donatella]

That resolution to pending issues left on subscriptions is likely to satisfy no one & to be totally unsatisfactory to some. 

[Errol]

Agreed. No disrespect, but I subscribed to Digest because I watched (and covered) soap operas. I am not an over 50-year-old woman who needs/wants tips on beauty, health and nutrition.

[dragonflies]

Any idea who's been on the most SOD covers overall?

Yeah people are PISSED, SOD is gonna lose even more money over this, I see a lot of subscription refunds happening

Edited November 7, 2023 by dragonflies

[BoldRestless]

 

Did you see the list on page 6?

 

I just hit CTRL-F and searched some names to see how many hits on the page. Not a perfect method as they may have been mentioned elsewhere on the page, but just as a fun and easy way to estimate. This list isn't meant to be complete, just some names I guessed would be high for each show:

Hogestyn 184

Sweeney 183

Hall 181

Benard 170

Alfonso 166

Reckell 134

Braeden 103

Francis 102

Bergman 98

Lang 85

Geary 74

Lucci 64

Zimmer 41