What's the Future for Print Magazines?

I love print media, and there has been much discussion surrounding the print media space. Is there a future for it? The following article was originally published on Jen Angel’s personal blog Aid & Abet.

If you’ve ever been involved in a print magazine, you’re probably sick of people asking you what is going to happen to print magazines, what with people reading all their content on the internet and  new fangled technology like the iPad/Kindle/Whatever.

That, of course, is the 10 million dollar question. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel for “National Magazine Day,” hosted by San Francisco’s great Booksmith store on Haight. The panel was coordinated by Kevin Smokler of BookTour.com, and also featured Jeremy Adam Smith from Shareable.net, Andrew Leland of The Believer, and Derek Powazek of Fray.

The great and wide-ranging conversation covered everything from the ethics and economy of using unpaid interns to create work,what it means to truly engage a reader, the changing role of editors (I have way more to say on that one later!) and lots of recommendations for publications that are really doing it right like Panorama, The Sun, and The Baffler. Here are two of my favorite parts of the conversation:

• When talking about the tension between online & print publications, and discussing the idea that print is becoming a “boutique” or “luxury” item, Derek brought up the idea that if you lived in a world where the Internet had come before print (or they had been invented at the same time), you would think about this question really differently. News (like, there’s an earthquake in Chile or what Congress is doing), really makes sense on the web. What makes sense for print are things that are evergreen (i.e. long lasting), should be documented for future posterity, etc. Huh. I guess I never really thought about it that way – what really *deserves* to be in print? If we go that model, we still need to figure out how to fund news organizations who exist primarily on the Internet.
• Jeremy, editor of Shareable.net, talked about the difference between editing for the web (his current life) and for print (his past life). With print, he said, you agonize over every word. With web, you don’t – and it’s even been known for editors or writers to change posts or articles once they’ve been “published” online. He said he felt like his job was less to focus on every minute detail than it was to create an environment in his site with which to attract a certain kind of person – those who are interested in sharing, generosity, and community building. He described it like a “habitat garden” – where the focus is less on individual plants and more on creating a garden environment that attracts certain kinds of wildlife. Great analogy!

I really enjoyed meeting Christin and Praveen, who have owned Booksmith since 2007. The store is looking great, and I *love* their Bookswap event – the next one is March 6!

In other magazine news, congratulations to Steve Katz and Madeleine Buckingham who were just named Publisher and CEO of Mother Jones. I’m looking forward to their leadership! And finally, Utne Reader has launched a celebration of all of our favorite magazines of the past, called the Dead Magazine Club.  Um, yeah. I have mixed feelings about that. But there are already some great posts up there, for mags like Body Play and Practical Anarchy – I remember them!

For more information, please visit Jen Angels blog and check out the wisdom she has to offer.

Are We Standing To Lose Net Neutrality

Check out this informative blog post written by friend and colleague Jake Negovan. Here's an excerpt:

Net neutrality is the philosophy that all internet content is treated equally by internet service providers.  That philosophy means that if you build a website and I want to visit it, I can get to your website just as easily as I could get to pages created by Matt Drudge, Perez Hilton, or Harry Knowles.  It means that if I want to read about new cars and their safety ratings, I have equal access to General Motors, Consumer Reports, or Ralph Nader.  It means that a handful of people in San Antonio can create a web outlet for multi-cultural commentary on politics and culture, name it RedBrownandBlue.com, and nothing stops those people from being read across the entire United States.

Live Mocha

I’m already addicted to reading, playing basketball and gummi bears, but I can’t stop working on learning new languages. With the world becoming increasingly small due to globalization, the possibility to expand your international horizons is as great as ever. This time last year, I never would have thought that I would be working in Santiago, Chile or London, yet I’ve been in Chile for the past 6 months (with two jobs) and will be moving to London in January to work for a Swiss publishing company. That’s right, a guy from the Dallas will be going to London to work for a Swisscompany. The demand for learning languages is increasing very rapidly.

Besides work, as I travel, I just find it rewarding to be able to communicate with people in their native tongue. I think it shows respect for their culture and opens so many doors, both professionally and socially. A good friend of mine, Naomi (whom I will give a Shout-Out to very soon), told me about LiveMocha, a social network for learning language. They offer courses in just about every language that you can imagine. You submit various assignments, and then the LiveMocha community will give you feedback and tips. Also, you can chat with people, send messages, and all the other good ‘ol web 2.0 stuff you’re used to. From what I see, LiveMocha has a very active community who is eager to offer their help. I’ve completed 4 assignments thus far and within minutes I had feedback from members telling me what I did right and how I can improve. This is an amazing resource for those trying to pick up additional language skills or want to help others. Furthermore, all of the necessary features are FREE. You can pay about $20 for additional features, such as the ability to download your assignments, but for me, it’s not necessary at this time.

For me, being able to get real help from real people is invaluable. Now, you don’t have to move to a country to immerse in the language. Also, a critical aspect for me is that because the community is global, you can learn regional differences in the language, which can be helpful if you ever visit different places that speak the same language. For example, the Spanish in Chile sounds very different from the Spanish in Mexico. Thanks, Naomi, for the heads up!

Does Anybody Buy CDs Anymore?

I know there have to be others, but sometimes it seems like I’m the only person left on earth who still purchases CDs. And yes, I mean actual CDs, compact discs…the ones that typically come in those hard-to-open plastic cases. In fact, I truly prefer vinyl records to CDs. If I could throw a vinyl in my car stereo, then I’d stick to those. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my digital formats. I constantly have music playing on my MacBook Pro, I have a few albums on my cell phone, and work out with an MP3 player. Yes, I do know about iTunes; I actually use it to encode all the CDs I buy into MP3 files. I know I could pay a small fee for services like Napster and have a seemingly unlimited selection of music, but I still prefer the actual physical discs.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I still prefer buying my music on physical formats to downloading them or paying for a subscription service. These methods are often cost-effective, quick, and easy, but I’m a sucker for physically owning the music. I like getting the booklet that comes in the case, the cover art on, and the actual CD. I do like using the Cover Flow feature on iTunes, but for me it still doesn’t beat looking at a stack of CD cases or a crate full of vinyl records to find inspiration on what album to listen to. I enjoy going to Best Buy on Tuesdays to pick up an album on release date. I like going to local record stores and looking through old used albums. There’s something about the atmosphere of those local record stores. Each has their unique clientele, style, and feel. Besides, I always find an album I should have bought several years ago whenever I go to one. With today’s releases, where many artists are more concerned about selling ring tones than making good music, it can be pointless to buy all your music on CDs when you can pay for individual tracks, but I normally find some hidden gems that don’t make the radio.

I appreciate the higher sound quality that you can get from a physical CD over a compressed digital format. While some digital formats are lossless, they often take up so much space on a hard drive or media player that it’s impractical to use, unless you’re an audiophile or music professional. When I really want to hear something sound good, I still feel that you can’t beat the sound of a clean vinyl record and a quality turntable. I know that carrying around a bunch of CDs when traveling or working out is not convenient. For these purposes, I definitely think a portable digital media player is the way to go, whether it’s an iPod, Zune, Zen, whatever. But when I’m sitting at home and I want to really enjoy my music, there’s nothing like thumbing through my vinyl and CD collection and listening to my favorite tracks.

Are there any others out there that feel the way I do?