Yes, there are some people foolish or brilliant enough to launch new magazines during an advertising recession. The WSJ catalogs them. Maer Roshan's Radar is the most interesting: a celebrity magazine which dishes the dirt [Vanity Fair and the rest are in the pockets of the Hollywood PRs] and reports reliably [unlike the supermarket tabs].
   But Tina Brown, Maer's boss on Talk, has her doubts. There's some truth here, and some explaining away of the ultimate failure of Talk, but she says: "The big, traditional, commercial magazine launch is a very antediluvian beast. If I was to do Talk again, I would do it on the Web."
Spunky Magazine Editors Buck Odds With Some New Magazines [Wall Street Journal]