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A magazine’s return and a dubious return on investment

By Ed Goldman

REEFER GLADNESS—While many magazines have gone to seed, one has willfully gone to pot. Or I should say has willfully returned to pot. I’m talking about High Times, the periodical dedicated to its loyal weeders.

As you might imagine, the magazine went through a rough patch when most of the country pulled a fast one by legalizing cannabis for recreational use. Now, with hashish haberdasheries becoming as ubiquitous as Starbucks in some cities, a publication whose very existence was a form of protest has gone from being irreverent to irrelevant.

If you’d gone through much of your life being functionally toasted on products like Maui Wowie or Acapulco Gold, you probably took the news in stoner stride that “High Times” had died and was now being resurrected—like the way you handled it the night you first suspected that the planet Neptune was trying to kill you: “I’m cool with that.” (And upon reconsideration: “But what’s up with Pluto?”)  

Even so, there’s some genuine excitement being generated by the prospect of High Times once again publishing a print edition for the estimated five million visitors to its website. Just think: If a mere 20 percent of that groggy cohort could get sober enough to read something more tactile than their smartphones, the reboot would be deemed a success. This is because print media rarely garner the numbers that social media can. For example, a self-anointed “influencer” can inspire several million “likes” or clicks by simply issuing an opinion of a movie, fashion fad or crossover/trans vocalist—whereas, the New York Times has fewer than 300,000 daily readers.  

But don’t cry for them, ardent readers. The Times reportedly has a combined daily readership of more than nine million: a combo of print, online, in-phone and possibly pet-chip implants.

I do suggest that the new, improved High Times refreshes its editorial mantra a little. As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, “High Times celebrates cannabis culture with news, essays advocating for legalization and celebrity interviews.”

While news remains news, those advocacy essays might seem dated. And the last time I checked, most celebrity interviews about pot feature sit-downs with Willy Nelson, Bill Maher or Woody Harrelson. (The late Jimmy Buffet used to be in that club, back when he was the On Time Jimmy Buffet.) Well, I would avidly read whatever the first two have to say but I have to say that Woody, who’s a fine actor, nonetheless seems to have a limited range of discussion topics he can summon: principally pot and Hawaii. Oh, I know what you’re thinking: Give that man my column!

MONDO CONDO—I’m guessing that many of you have sat through presentations, often at a lovely resort that offered you a few nights’ lodging at deeply discounted prices in exchange for your giving up an average of 90 minutes to listen to someone try to sell you a time-share room at that very resort. 

I’ve now sat through two: one in southern California, and one in northwest Hawaii. They varied only in location. The essential pitch didn’t. For a certain price, I could purchase a hotel room for one week a year (or every other year). The pitch-person made it clear that a room was “guaranteed” though not the room I was enjoying on my current semi-junket. In each case, I’d also pay annual property taxes and maintenance fees.