Renaming 'McCall's' not a good idea

What do Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and Rosie O'Donnell have in common? They all have magazines that bear their own name and focus on their own beliefs and causes. The difference, though, is that Rosie didn't start her own magazine; she took over someone else's.\nWhen O'Donnell wanted a magazine dedicated to everything Rosie, she decided to buy out the 125-year-old women's magazine McCall's. This magazine is one of the most storied women's publications in America. Its pages have been graced with articles by George Bernard Shaw, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eleanor Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Surely they are all turning in their graves at this change in ownership.\nThe most recent issue of the newly managed magazine just hit the stands. It bears the new name Rosie, since focus groups found the title Rosie's McCall's to be too much of a mouthful. Instead of leaving the magazine with the name it has had since the 1890s, O'Donnell decided to give it hers. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that Rosie governs the cover and the content inside. The historic magazine that traditionally featured recipes and women's issue stories is now a forum for O'Donnell to talk about her children and interview her friends.\nShe also plans to move the magazine's focus away from women's issues and point it more toward a political agenda. Not only does she intend to write a column in each issue, she also has the power to control the editorial content of the entire magazine as part of her role as editorial director. She told The Associated Press that she had to use her "annoyingly Democratic" views to guide the magazine's editorial content. McCall's, a magazine that started as a fashion pamphlet and matured into a women's magazine dealing with all the issues and trends that affect modern women, will be transformed into a socially responsible magazine that "will show you the gritty underside" instead of showing "the glossy exterior" like most other women's magazines do, O'Donnell told The Associated Press.\nIf Rosie O'Donnell wanted a clone of Oprah Winfrey's magazine, aptly named O after the talk show host, she should have started her own. Taking over a 125-year-old institution for vanity's sake is a disservice to everyone -- especially McCall's loyal readers who will be saddened and shocked to open their mailboxes this month and find Rosie instead.\nStaff vote: 8-0-0