《紐約時報》記者凱瑟琳這樣描述作為增刊的《生活》：這本期刊一度以刊登世界級攝影家的作品為特色。《生活》是美國曆史最悠久和最有名的圖片期刊，上世紀不少著名攝影家都是因《生活》期刊刊登了其照片而成名。
隨著報紙業的衰落以及對報紙增刊分類廣告的預測，已不足以保證周刊《生活》在未來獲得足夠的資金支持。對於2007年4月20日《生活》的第三次停刊，美國時代集團給世界各地讀者如上解釋。他們同時聲稱，將把《生活》期刊搬到網絡上繼續發展，同時繼續經營《生活》品牌下的書籍出版等其他商業事務。
2008年，作為與《生活》合作的一部分，穀歌宣布它在主持期刊的一個檔案。檔案中的一些圖片從未在期刊上發表過。檔案資料通過穀歌的圖片搜索即可獲取。
新舊更迭似乎已是個老套的模式，但《生活》這樣美國曆史最為悠久且最負盛名的圖片期刊的停刊，依然是轟動世界出版界的熱點話題。如果真要說能從這一次停刊中看出點什麼新的苗頭，或者說某種未來趨勢，則不妨試想想時下發展如燎原之勢的電子期刊。
《生活》的使命
“To see Life；to see the world；to eyewitness great events；to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud；to see strange things-machines，armies，multitudes，in the jungle and on the moon；to see man's work-his paintings，towers and discoveries；to see things hidden behind walls and within rooms，things dangerous to come to；the women that men love and many children；to see and to take pleasure in seeing；to see and be amazed；to see and be instructed.”
“Thus to see，and to be shown，is now the will and new expectancy of half mankind.”
“To see，and to show，is the mission now undertaken by a new kind of publication...”
《生活》的座右銘
The motto of the first issue of Life was“While there's Life，there's hope.”The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers：“We wish to have some fun in this paper...We shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world...We shall have something to say about religion，about politics，fashion，society，literature，the stage，the stock exchange，and the police station，and we will speak out what is in our mind as fairly，as truthfully，and as decently as we know how.”