More Proof That We're Getting Old (As If We Needed It)

Jane is closing its doors.

Not that I've bought a copy of the magazine in years, or even more than glanced at it while getting my nails done, but still... you don't like to see magazines like this one--irreverent and thought-provoking at its best--die. And you definitely don't want to hear from folks like magazine editor Sally Koslow that this kind of thing was inevitable because, well, nobody likes that much attitude.

For the record, I think there are plenty of us who like that much attitude and more--it's just, apparently, that none of us were buying Jane anymore. Perhaps because we're building adult lives and reading The New Yorker, or buying our first houses and paging through Domino to fill them. Or maybe it's because it never really felt the same once founder/EIC Jane Pratt hit the road. And no, it was never as good as Sassy (which turned out not to be sustainable either). But it was a magazine it felt reassuring to have out there, even if you didn't buy it: some funky counter to Seventeen and Elle and all the other mags that seem born just to remind you you're not quite good enough.

And now it's gone. I'm sure I can find my irreverence in the pages of Bitch and Bust, but I gotta tell ya: there really was something nice about the idea that big, corporate Conde Nast was pouring bucks into something just the teensiest bit subversive. Say goodbye to all that, folks, and pour a little out for our sisters at Jane.