it's like Martha Stewart Living set on the coast

I have grown up and lived 10 minutes from the ocean for all of my 28 years. I have spent a large chunk of my life swimming in the ocean, fishing in the bay, and sunning myself on the beach. A magazine "For People Who Love The Coast" sounded like a perfect fit for me!

Cost
The magazine has a cover price of $3.99 per issue. They publish 9 issues per year so you'd pay $36 plus tax to buy the magazine while a subscription cost me $20. The price seems reasonable to me.

Photographs
It is a fairly thick magazine with a gorgeous cover picture. Even if you never open it up, it's worth the $4 just for how beautiful it looks on your coffee table. The pictures inside are fresh and absolutely gorgeous. I sometimes wish I could order prints of the images used in the magazine without the text superimposed on top of them. I can relate to some of the shore shots while others pique my curiosity about what other coastal areas are like.

Feature Articles
This is where the magazine becomes somewhat depressing to me. All of the articles focus on gorgeous, multi-million dollar waterfront homes. We read about couples who buy homes that cost obscene amounts of money and then they spend thousands and tens of thousands on interior designers, architects, renovations, and furnishings. They never actually discuss how much any of these homes/furnishings cost but it is extremely clear to the average reader that these places are FAR FAR FAR BEYOND even a moderately professional person's reach. The real kick in the teeth, though, is when you read that this is someone's weekend home or retreat. Normal people would DIE to live in these places full-time and we read about people trying to make time to sneak away to these gorgeous homes.

The Advertisements
Also depressing--most of them are for luxury planned waterfront communities. Where are all of these super-rich people who are sitting around reading Coastal Living? It just reinforces the idea that this magazine is not "for people who love the coast" but rather "for people who hit the lottery."

The Rest of the Magazine
They have a few token "coastal" recipes in each issue. I've checked them all out in hopes of finding something new and fun to cook but nothing has ever sounded appetizing or possible for me to cook.

There are also some front pages in each issue with "hot new buys" that feature fairly expensive products. The items they highlight are fun and are things that I'd love to buy but pricing is unrealistic. They recently featured these adorable mustard-brown colored plates in different fish shapes for salad, dinner, and dessert courses. Each plate started at $78. Are they kidding me?

Will I Renew?
This is a tough call for me. I have to say that I probably won't. After 2 years of the magazine, it seems to all blur into the same stories about a super-busy city couple with 2 children who found the second home of their dreams, gutted it, and then spent oodles of money having it professionally decorated. It makes me feel just as inadequate as reading Martha Stewart Living's suggestions for picking your home-grown corn to cook on your perfect seasoned-wood grill while arranging your various hothouse blooms and refinishing a cabinet. Yes the idea is lovely but the whole thing is just not realistic for average to even very successful people. While I may be able to pick out 2 or 3 tips from an issue of Martha Stewart that I can incorporate into my life, I don't see how reading about waterfront parties in professionally-decorated properties connects to my life here by the coast. I probably will pass on Coastal Living when the time comes to renew. It's a nice magazine but the stories seem to all be the same--and all about people with whom I have nothing in common.