Magazines

July 11, 2008 at 3:08 pm · Filed under magazines

David Kaplan at PaidContent.org looks at a skeptical report on the ability of magazines to profitably transition to digital. Nothing particularly surprising, but it is incredible to think of just how few magazines have moved successfully to the web. Magazines publishers employ a ton of smart, creative people. Why can’t they find a way to publish successfully online?

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Networked Fast Company

February 21, 2008 at 7:43 pm · Filed under community, magazines, media, social networks

What Fast Company are doing in terms of integrating amateur and pro content is pretty interesting. Right through their site they are erasing the boundaries between their highly paid internet A-Listers, Scoble, Israel etc, and their readers. And the truly amazing thing here is that Fast Company is at heart a magazine, the oldest of old media types.

One thing that makes this work is that the pro bloggers and writers are really pro. And the community editors are doing a good job of bringing the very best amateur content to the surface.

Jeff Jarvis weighs in with his ever definitive thoughts on FC and co here.

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“Arguement” by McCall at Serpentine

January 11, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under art, film, london, magazines

The Serpentine are showing McCall and Tyndall’s “Argument” on Thursday 17th January. Any takers?

A screening of McCall and Andrew Tyndall’s feature-length film
Argument, followed by a presentation by artist Aurélien Froment, whose
work deals with archives and film as a metaphor. Argument is a dense
and provocative feature-length essay examining one issue of the New
York Times magazine to investigate the ideology of news, the language
of fashion and the construction of masculinity.

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Why the Economist does so well

December 5, 2007 at 3:21 pm · Filed under content, magazines, media

Roy Greenslade writes up some pointers on why the Economist, unlike the US magazines mentioned below, continues on an upward sales and revenue curve.
It’s free market economics are too much for my likings generallly but it’s hard to disagree with Greenslade’s well made point that it knows it’s audience really well and goes out and grabs them by the balls every Friday:

I often think that the magazine is a little like the BBC World Service,
dispensing well-informed reports about what is happening around the
globe to the people who need to know or, just possibly, those who think
they should know. The difference is that The Economist comes at matters
with a strong point a view. It is, genuinely, a viewspaper with a
strong commitment to the free market.

Technorati Tags: theeconomist, keepfakingit, greenslade, media, magazines

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Death of the American Magazine

December 3, 2007 at 4:59 pm · Filed under community, content, magazines, media, politics

Interesting piece from Jon Friedman of MarketWatch on the decline and fall of the magazine. And what the modern American editor is doing about it (not a lot in many cases).
Five easily bloggable points jump out:

• Take a page out of the playbook of what differentiated MSNBC.com from the pack. Have almost as many graphics and design experts as writers on staff.

• Provide a feature that you simply don’t have space for in your newsstand product:
  namely, the back story. Readers love to know the Inside Story on a big event. Let your reporters explain HOW they covered big news, and give them an opportunity to tell their stories. Yes, some blogs do this, too, but not often or well enough.

• Make the sites as interactive as possible. Time took a good step in this direction by having its readers pick the questions it asks celebrities in its regular feature.

• Use the Web to explain the news as comprehensively as possible. Don’t simply report the story on the Internet — give such information as a chronology. The Wall Street Journal’s Web site routinely does this, and it pays off.

• Keep the staff nonbelievers as far away from the Web as possible. If editors or reporters are ambivalent about or hostile to the Web (like many have been at Time Inc., and you can’t fire them all), don’t let them corrupt
  your site with their lethargy or disapproval. Listen, the Web is the most exciting part of a modern journalism enterprise for ambitious writers and editors. If they haven’t figured it out by now, to hell with them.

The point on graphics design vs extra copy writers I think is massive. It’s all too rare on news websites to see good illustration and it’s something that fits very well into the more protracted deadlines magazines allow. 

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