i've been in a huge magazine malaise for a long time now but they have meant a lot to me down the years.
Jockey Slut is probably my fave defunct mag.
i may not read old faves like the Economist, the Wire, Vibe or the New Yorker much (or at all) these days, but as a stand-by they're still reasonably go-to. i even like Time Out titles (although Chicago, London and NY are the only ones i've ever read w any regularity), i know all the criticism us Dissensians have w them, but for addresses of food and drink gaffs alone it's worth a read at WHSmiths. (you don't need to pay for it, granted.)
the magazine i look out for on home turf is Opening Times, the Manchester and Salford real ale magazine, it's a modest but very good free-sheet distributed monthly in the area, normally about 24-36 pages. i would pay for it.
if i'm in the States (the country where i have spent the most time after UK, as Oliver knows), then i like the tradition (certainly in larger cities) of weighty, often free alterna-rag type tomes (i think Seattle's Stranger is the oldest). the Chicago Reader captured my heart a long time ago.
i used to read Songlines a lot, i think that's still going, and Gramophone, which is definitely still going.
Monocle and Wallpaper are sort of porn.
you can recycle your magazines. and you can cut out pictures and text and plaster your lavatory with the pictures and text.
books remain generally better but VANITY FAIR, by jove, that's a fine read.