When I was doing work experience I witnessed first hand how Australian magazines (and presumably many MANY others worldwide) read and understand every other glossy in their niche, attuning themselves to what is going on in the magazine world and what stories are being brainstormed by others in the industry.

With this in mind, obviously the majority who read Australian Cosmo are not also reading US Glamour. HOWEVER, it appears that Cosmo is taking a little too much advice from their US idol.

OFFENSE: REPEATING STORIES

Cosmopolitan has repeated two of the same story concepts from Glamour within the space of a few months.

(For the record, these stories are not reprinted word by word and it is merely the article concepts which have been appropriated. I accuse no one of plagiarism!!)

EVIDENCE:

Oooooooooo, I just don’t understand it! Happens once, I think – wow, freaky coincidence. Two times, however, within a year must mean that something is horribly wrong. Even if it’s not plagiarism, it still seems a bit ethically wrong…

Granted, Glamour‘s ideas were not exactly cutting edge, but they were new to me and I read them. Cosmopolitan probably thought that it was a story good idea and thus appropriated the content for their readers, changing examples and sourcing different expert opinions to make the story their own.

When I put it that way, it seems fairly harmless. Especially, as mentioned, since Glamour readers would most often not also be Cosmopolitan readers and vice versa, thus such revelations as this would never occur.

On the other hand, I think the Australian magazine industry is more than capable of coming up with their very own new, fresh and exciting stories without having to copy those ideas of their US sisters.

And for those few who DO read both, why on EARTH would I pay for second hand content?

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