The end of an era is nearly upon us… United Airlines has just published the last-ever print edition of its popular Hemispheres inflight magazine and to celebrate the occasion, the airline is giving away a “very limited” number of free copies to its frequent flyers.
News of United’s decision to axe its inflight magazine after more than three decades in print was made public early last month when a spokesperson for the airline said that it was working on “an even better” digital magazine that promises to “offer more personalized content and tell richer stories.”
Hemispheres was perhaps best known for its regular and recurring features like ‘Three Perfect Days,’ which inspired passengers to try unique activities in various destinations across United’s route network. It was a well-thumbed publication that frequent flyers would return to time and time again.
The magazine has been published since 1992 and has graced the seatbacks of United’s airplanes for nearly 32 years. By the end of September, however, the magazine will be gone forever.
Sadly the demise of Hemispheres has been on the cards for a while after rival airlines stopped publishing their own inflight magazines in recent years.
In 2021, American Airlines ditched its iconic ‘American Way’ after concluding that passengers no longer wanted to flick through the pages of a dog-eared magazine and would rather browse the internet or watch shows downloaded to their own devices.
Delta and Southwest also decided to retire their inflight magazines during the pandemic, and Alaska Airlines also dispensed with its own inflight magazine several years ago.
If you do want to get your hands on one of the last-ever print copies of Hemisheres, you’ll have to be quick, however.
United has printed 50,000 extra copies of the magazine to gift to MileagePlus frequent flyer program members and once they are gone, no more will be published.
At the time of publication, less than 2,000 copies had been snapped up for free by MileagePlus members but as word gets out, expect the number of available copies to quickly dry up.
What the future holds for the new-look digital magazine remains to be seen, although United says it has hired additional staffers to bring the experience to life.
Interestingly, only a few months ago, United announced that it had created its own digital media ad network called Kinective Media, which will sell advertising across the airline’s online ecosystem, including its website, mobile app, and the 100,000 seatback screens that the airline boasts across its fleet.
That could well be a far better and far more lucrative way to attract advertisers than by selling space in a print magazine.
