In March, a study confirmed that Netflix had finally achieved its once-ridiculous goal of releasing more original programming than licensed content from other studios last year, despite the fact that a lot of people still subscribe to the service just so they can have 24/7 access to Friends and The Office. Of course, that accomplishment would not have been possible without Netflix’s current commitment to constantly releasing new movies and TV shows—whether they’re actually good or not—as quickly and as quietly as possible. Netflix evidently wants subscribers to log on and be bombarded with autoplaying trailers for things they’ve never heard of, because that establishes that Netflix has an endless supply of Things To Watch, regardless of whether you would ever watch those things or not.
This, however, creates a problem: Actually finding something to watch is no easier than it has been since the advent of Netflix’s streaming video platform, and that, by extension, means it’s hard to get people who vote on prestigious awards to know what they should be paying attention to. Luckily, the company has devised a seemingly unorthodox solution to this issue, with Bloomberg reporting that Netflix is planning to launch its very first print magazine, featuring interviews and essays related to Netflix’s immense library of originals. Once again, this is a print magazine. Published by Netflix. The same company that recently decided it wanted to buy a physical movie theater. It’s too bad Jordan Peele’s new Twilight Zone is on CBS All Access, because this would be some great viral marketing for a show about waking up in a world where nothing makes sense.
Netflix’s magazine, which is tentatively titled Wide (an awful name), is expected to be released in June, since—as Bloomberg notes—that’s when the TV academy votes on Emmy nominations. The publication will also be free, but you most likely won’t find it sitting alongside Entertainment Weekly or whatever at the local grocery store. Instead, it’ll primarily be targeted at industry events, where people from the media could be convinced to give more of a shit about Netflix’s many forgettable originals (and occasional very good originals). Of course, as wild as this may seem, it’s not actually unheard of. CBS, for example, publishes its own magazine called Watch! that gives even the lowliest CBS star a chance to be in the spotlight, but you’d probably only ever see an issue of that if you hang out at the CBS office.