Digital Magazines: As Drift Goes To Paper, Journalists Go To PDF
By Robert Andrews - Wed 02 Apr 2008 01:20 AM PST
Digital magazines are either passe or the next big thing - depending who you listen to. Independent surfing mag Drift - until now published only as a web-embedded digital edition - is switching to a true print format, believing digital editions have “had their day”. Editor Howard Swanwick (via PG): “As a medium to put features in, they don’t work.” PG: Swanwick said Drift also had problems selling space, because advertisers did not understand the digital format. Eco-conscious, he’d started Drift as a digital-only page-turner (a medium that has never really taken advantage of the web) in 2005. But surfers are more likely to flick through a physical copy in a cafe, surf shop or the back of a van than go online.
In journalism, however, one wind is blowing in the other direction. The National Union of Journalists‘ inspiringly-named monthly mail-out members’ mag ”The Journalist” has stopped publishing in print and has gone online. The union, which is recognised as being somewhat sceptical toward online media, is, from the April edition, publishing the same mag as PDF, with accompanying text dumps for articles. NUJ: ”The motive for doing this was to save the cost of print, post and packaging, but it comes at a time when the relationship between print and internet is changing fast.”
But then, it admits to paying the editor £65,000 - a whopping salary for such a title - and the print production cost is £204,500. It says it yanked the 32-pager to create a debate about how members want to receive their news in future - on paper or on-screen? Killing the title ahead of the consultation is an interesting way to approach the issue, and it’s likely many NUJ members will read a print edition or nothing.
