While I agree with Jenna Sauers in principle that in-flight magazines have the potential to be fantastic because they have captive audiences of both genders and a very broad purview, I can't be nearly as sanguine as she is about the medium simply on grounds of hope. As a practicing journalist, I am consistently appalled to the point of sickness about the opportunities in-flight magazines waste. They can't be as dreadful as they are because no one is pitching articles to them, or because no one is available who wants to condescend to work for what is essentially a trade magazine. I know a huge number of talented, unemployed or drastically underemployed, writers who could do a fabulous job if given a small amount of resources to write pieces on almost any subject, and would do so for relatively low fees. Or salaries. Or extremely limited health insurance. In-flight magazines sell advertising because they're part of the travel industry, and because they have such an amazingly large captive audience, so I have a hard time believing, even given the state of the commercial aviation business, that the costs of better writing and reporting would be prohibitive. In fact, if they were better, and if any of the people publishing had actual name recognition, the airlines might be able to sell better brands. Hell, do a print run for first and business class and sell luxury ads specific to that. There are all sorts of potential revenue streams. And while wifi is coming to planes, flights are one of the few places where print doesn't have to compete with the internet yet. It's kind of brilliant, actually, and it makes it especially stupid that airlines haven't caught on to it yet.
The talent is manifestly available, the revenue stream is obvious, and yet the pieces published in in-flight magazines are nearly always travesties of simply awful prose, unimaginative subject choice, and astonishingly minimal reporting. These publications are embarrassing, when they could publish excellent pieces, showcase emerging talent, and enhance the overall flying experience of captive audiences who are already hungry because they have six pretzels in a foil bag to eat, and crabby because their planes are late, or grubby. And so I don't think airline magazines get a pass. Journalism already feels too sorry for itself, and for some very good reasons, to excuse any segment of the industry that is doing less than it can to survive and be great.