I’ve had magazine subscriptions of various types for years now, beginning with Boy’s Life (the Boy Scout magazine…) and various computer game mags, and then eventually to Popular Science and Consumer Reports. However, in recent years, there have been a number of news stories discussing “The Death of Print Media,” including magazines and newspapers, primarily. This is mostly due to the Internet and its ability to get you the same information much, much faster than a weekly or monthly periodical can, and cheaper as well.
Recently, however, certain magazines have begun to toy with digital versions of their material. These are magazines that have either dropped in subscribers to a substantial degree, or have already folded for a variety of reasons. For example, while TIME Magazine is apparently weathering the storm, Newsweek just got hammered by a drop in subscribers to the point where they were looking for a buyer. Gourmet Magazine shipped its final issue at the end of 2009. On the gaming side, Electronic Gaming Monthly was shuttered at the beginning of 2009.
Some magazines have gotten around this problem by increasing the quality of their material. Edge Magazine, a gaming periodical in Europe, has proven to be successful by starting to use thicker, glossy paper, raising the perceived value of their product over their competitors. The magazine just looks good sitting on your table, with its larger paper and glossy images. It’s the kind of thing you want to keep on your coffee table, as opposed to other magazines that are constantly including more and more ads and thinner, newspaper-like print. They also limit the number of individual magazines they produce, only making enough to send to subscribers (all over the world…) and keep a limited number on news stands. This helps keep their costs down, rather than making more magazines than the public will buy.
Alternatively, some of the aforementioned publications are going digital…and in a big way. The advent of the iPad has allowed Newsweek and Sports Illustrated (amongst others) to get weekly content to readers on-the-go very cheaply, effectively replicating web-based content in a magazine-oriented format. You can turn the pages as you would with a book, but now making a touch-based gesture on your iPad screen. The images are very colorful, print easy-to-read, and perhaps most important of all, they can now include hyperlinks and video content that you can’t with a regular magazine. Recently, it was also announced that Gourmet Magazine was relaunching as Gourmet Live, also releasing on iPad (announcement video below).
Similarly, Electronic Gaming Monthly was bought out by the guy that started the magazine in the first place back in the 90s and relaunched in both print and digital formats. For a demo, click this link and it will take you to a freely available copy of the magazine (pictured above) so you can see what it looks and feels like (and you should “Experience in Full Screen”). While you may not be interested in video games in the least, at least you’ll get an idea of what is possible through digital distribution of magazines. EGM also has an iPad version, but this particular example is representative of what you can experience in any web browser.
So, is “print dead?” Probably not, but it’s definitely evolving. Everything I’ve heard suggests that print journalism majors are finding it difficult to get jobs once they graduate from college, as many newspapers and magazines are scaling back, if not shutting their doors. The primary hurdle appears to be advertising, as very, very few companies have been able to make it with their large-scale operations solely on the advertising revenues of web-based content. The New York Times tried unsuccessfully to require subscriptions on portions of their website years ago (and they’re trying again in 2011), but our culture tends to shun pay-for content on the internet, at least with regards to news. There are just so many blogs available, or other free sites, that get you the same information for no money at all.
Personally, I’m on board with a model like Edge or EGM is using, one where they produce magazines in limited quantity for the people that want it, but otherwise provide digital versions for those that don’t care either way. Honestly, I still read everything on blogs and only go to the “primary source” sites when linked there. I like the way EGM has set up their content, but I think I’d rather have an iPad or some other similar device for that purpose, rather than use my heavier and more unwieldy laptop (imagine sitting in bed and reading…would you rather hold your laptop or your iPad?).
I think a lot of people value the content they get from magazines and newspapers, as the journalists that write them get access to news and information they otherwise can’t. Bloggers generally don’t have correspondents in Afghanistan, so they rely on organizations like NPR and the Associated Press to gather the news, and bloggers just put their own spin on it and spread it as well. We still need primary news sources to survive this transition from “old media” to “new media!”