United Airlines will be discontinuing its popular inflight magazine, and that’s kind of sad…
United Hemispheres Magazine being cut
ModernRetail is reporting that United Airlines will be discontinuing the print version of its Hemispheres Magazine shortly. The magazine first launched in 1992, so it’s being discontinued after roughly 32 years. This is truly the end of an era, as United was the last of the “big three” US legacy airlines to still have an inflight magazine.
The process of winding down the magazine has already started — for example, hemispheresmag.com now redirects to United’s website, while it used to be a dedicated website. The archives from past issues have also disappeared from online.
I’m really going to miss Hemispheres Magazine, as I think it was probably the best produced inflight magazine. In particular, I loved United’s “Three Perfect Days” articles, highlighting various destinations that United serves.
Now, while the print version of Hemispheres Magazine is being cut, it appears that United plans to publish some sort of content digitally, though I don’t think it’ll look like the current magazine. Per a United spokesperson from some time back:
“A digital experience allows us to make Hemispheres even better — we can reach a wider audience, offer more personalized content and tell richer stories. We’ve even hired additional United staff to help us bring this new vision to life. We’re excited about the future possibilities and look forward to sharing more details soon.”
Keep in mind that United recently announced it was launching a media network, named Kinective Media by United Airlines. This is described as the airline industry’s first media network that uses insights from travel behaviors to connect customers to personalized, real-time advertising, content, experiences, and offers, from leading brands.
It goes without saying that a print magazine probably doesn’t fit into that vision, and might even be viewed as competition.
The end of inflight magazines was inevitable
Back in 2015, we saw SkyMall file for bankruptcy, which was probably a foreshadowing of what was to come. SkyMall was a thing for so long because people literally had nothing to do on planes.
Sure, you may not have boarded a plane thinking you needed the world’s largest wine glass, a garden gnome, a glow in the dark toilet seat, or a foot tanner, but damnit, by the time you landed, you were considering a full redesign of your home, as well as your life’s priorities.
Inflight magazines survived for a long time because they made money with advertising rather than actually selling anything, and they could claim a high circulation. But at this point it’s hard to imagine there’s any future for inflight magazines:
- We’re increasingly seeing airlines offer streaming entertainment and Wi-Fi
- Even without that, people bring their own entertainment, in the form of smartphones and tablets, which weren’t nearly as common a decade ago
- With people more concerned about touching dirty surfaces, many would avoid a magazine that has been sitting in a seat back for weeks
- Inflight magazines aren’t great for the environment, both in terms of the paper they’re printed on, and in terms of the added fuel burn from the weight of them, and that’s increasingly a concern for airlines
When you combine all those factors, it’s not surprising to see airlines eliminate these, one-by-one. As we can see, United actually kept around inflight magazines longer than American and Delta. However, with United now launching a digital media network, it’s even less surprising that this is finally being cut.
While there’s general talk of switching inflight magazines to digital, I’m not surprised this hasn’t really caught on. I think most people read inflight magazines not because they’re necessarily that interested, but rather because they have nothing better to do. If people are going to access them from a smartphone or laptop, chances are that there’s something else they’d rather read first.
Bottom line
United Airlines is discontinuing Hemispheres Magazine, marking the end of inflight magazines at the “big three” US carriers. Hemispheres Magazine was always well done, so I’m kind of sad to see this development. At the same time, I’m not surprised, especially with United’s new digital media network.
I feel bad for the people (presumably) losing their jobs over this, and there’s also something sentimental about inflight magazines, which I’ll miss. When I’d fly well over a decade ago I remember reading these magazines cover to cover, and always looking forward to a new issue coming out.
What do you make of United discontinuing Hemispheres Magazine?
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