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Sunday Morning News

Time Warner Announces the End of 'Life' as We Know it

Aired March 19, 2000 - 8:15 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The powerful pictures in "Life" magazine made it a major fixture in the publishing scene for decades. Now parent company Time Incorporated is pulling the plug again and "Life" is going into semi-retirement. The magazine that has chronicled world history will put out its last monthly publication in May. "Time" plans to publish only occasional issues for milestone events and books that carry the Life brand.

We're joining by photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who has done assignments for "Life," and Matthew Felling, who heads Newswatch.org, an online media criticism magazine.

Good morning to both of you.

MARY ELLEN MARK, FORMER "LIFE" MAGAZINE PHOTOJOURNALIST: Good morning.

MATTHEW FELLING, CENTER FOR MEDIA & PUBLIC AFFAIRS, NEWSWATCH.ORG: good morning.

PHILLIPS: Mary Ellen, let's begin with you. Let's talk about the impact of "Life" magazine. Those pictures really took us out of the box and deep into society, didn't they?

MARK: They did. I mean it was a whole different time though. But I remember the first time I had an assignment for "Life" in the late '60s. I mean I was so excited and so happy, I mean that meant arriving as a photographer.

PHILLIPS: And we're looking at images of "Life" magazine and some of the pictures that moved us through the years. Talk about the credibility of "Life." Were you able to get into places that no one else gets into because you were with "Life" magazine?

MARK: I think everybody wanted to be photographed by "Life" magazine. I mean it was an icon. It was the standard for great photography and notoriety. So it did allow you wonderful access.

PHILLIPS: Now, Matthew, on the other side of things, you think that "Life" magazine should have seen this coming and should have adjusted to the changing in times. What do you mean?

FELLING: I think that it's a telling indicator, "Life" being phased out, of the brand media marketplace that we have today. I think we used to have a newsstand and now we have pretty much a news section in your local drugstore or on the street. And I look at "Life" magazine as being -- pardon the March madness allusion here -- but I see them as being the top seed that thinks that they didn't have to change their game at all to compete with every other team out there in the field. And then the young, more energetic magazines and the upstarts could carve their way into the marketplace a lot easier.

PHILLIPS: Don't you think they, that they, like they did, definitely hold, hold in there with a certain ethic and standard and not conform, because that's the problem nowadays, everybody's conforming and changing. Maybe they should hold true to their standard and it should continue.

FELLING: It is true and it's a disappointment that staying to that standard did not work and was not a successful model for them. But at the same time, there's just so many images out there now. People can go to the Internet and just click on an image and they can see the image in front of them. They have all the media. They have TV, they have movies. And I think that "Life" magazine just became the silent movie of our generation, the thing that was beautiful and the thing that was enlightening but yet doomed when another kind of media came into the scene.

PHILLIPS: Mary Ellen, do you agree with that?

FELLING: I really agree and I really admire them for trying to stay with the idea of doing real documentary photography, photography with content. I don't think we have today content in the magazines. It's very different. Magazines are about commerce now. They're about selling a movie or selling clothes and, I mean, they're very beautiful to look at but I really miss the content and the reality and I think many people agree with me.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about that because you have a wonderful example of some time you spent with a homeless family, a long time, as a matter of fact. We're going to look at those pictures and tell us about this experience that moved you.

MARK: Well, this was an incredible experience. I photographed a homeless family. I visited them twice in 1987 and then again in 1994 and I also photographed street kids and Mother Teresa (ph) and I had so many extraordinary experiences working for "Life" that those pictures really meant something to me and those pictures will last. I think the problem today is that we don't have pictures that will last as much in magazines and "Life" gave people the opportunity to look at images that they'll never forget.

PHILLIPS: Mary Ellen, do you agree that the pictures really move the story versus the words and that we don't see that very often anymore?

MARK: I think the pictures were very, very important in "Life." But there was, it was a team effort with a journalist and a photographer. But the pictures were about reality and about content and about things that mattered and things that last. The whole idea was to make images that would become icons that people would never forget and I think that's, unfortunately, that's very different now. The whole idea now is more for a quick fix, do you see something beautiful or funny, but then it's gone when the week is over or the month is over and the magazine's thrown away. We will always have those "Life" images. They will stay with us forever.

PHILLIPS: That is true. Matthew, our society consumed by the Internet, digital technology. Do you think periodicals will just become obsolete? Do you think photography will become obsolete?

FELLING: No. I think that there will always be a place in the market for a product that knows its audience and can attend to its audience with powerful images. I don't think that "Life" magazine succeeded in doing that because they had a targeted audience that has phased itself out of the marketplace and they failed to look at the 40s, the 30 year olds and the 20 year olds who probably haven't really seen a "Life" magazine except on their grandmother's or their mother's night table. And they needed to adjust to the needs of the younger audience which, unfortunately, is a lot more superficial and a lot more glitzy than "Life" would ever want to be.

So I think it's completely typical of "Life" to instead of conform or instead of dumbing down its content and its images to just saying, you know, thank you very much for the game. We'll step away now.

PHILLIPS: Mary Ellen, finally, do you think there's any way to save the beauty of what "Life" magazine represented and to avoid sort of that shallow nature that's become such a big part of our society?

MARK: Well, I would certainly hope that there would be. I'm not sure. Part of me can't believe that there -- I'm so disappointed that there won't be a "Life" magazine but maybe through, maybe eventually it'll come back. I mean that's all we can hope for, because I think it's important and I think everybody is going to miss seeing reality.

PHILLIPS: Mary Ellen Mark, lots of freelance shooting for "Life" magazine, and Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, thank you both for being with us.

MARK: Thank you.

FELLING: Thank you very much.

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