Here's something you might be interested in.
From Ms. Beak's "San Diego Munch" column on "10 media vampires that should have been spiked long ago":
"9. Reader cover stories. OK, we get it. They are different. Quirky. But after all these years of staking out the esoteric high ground, would it really kill the editors to run a cover story that people may actually want to read?"
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/24/30242/
From Ms. Beak's "San Diego Munch" column on "10 media vampires that should have been spiked long ago":
"9. Reader cover stories. OK, we get it. They are different. Quirky. But after all these years of staking out the esoteric high ground, would it really kill the editors to run a cover story that people may actually want to read?"
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/aug/24/30242/