Saturday, May 07, 2005
Die, magazines, Die!
mediabistro.com: Articles: The Internet Tail Will Come to Wag the Magazine Dog
I was prepared to hate this Jesse Kornbluth piece, but ended up finding a thoughtful meditation on the future of magazines. I don't agree with his conclusions, or his feeling that the magazine as a form ..."is a beautifully designed, artfully constructed monument to the Analog God. An artifact. A time-capsule. A collectible."
And I don't think that if, as he predicts, magazines might one day be promotions for web sites (instead of the other way around), that would be a bad thing.
Kornbluth notes, as have so many others, that the Wall Street Journal's web operation is more profitable than its print operation, as if that were some sort of proof of concept of the death of print media. But is the WSJ's web operation fully loaded with editorial costs? I doubt it. Without the cost of creating great editorial, it's easy for a web site to be profitable--look at Yahoo and Google, which don't create much on their own. (It would be interesting to see an analysis of Yahoo's financials with Yahoo having to pay to create all of its own content).
I also continue to believe that a magazine is more than ink on glossy paper. It's an organizing principle, one that has been co-opted by TV newsmagazines and most websites.
Finally, I believe Jesse Kornbluth runs a fine website. If you haven't, you should subscribe to Head Butler for his daily recommendations on media (much of it print).
Comments
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I was prepared to hate this Jesse Kornbluth piece, but ended up finding a thoughtful meditation on the future of magazines. I don't agree with his conclusions, or his feeling that the magazine as a form ..."is a beautifully designed, artfully constructed monument to the Analog God. An artifact. A time-capsule. A collectible."
And I don't think that if, as he predicts, magazines might one day be promotions for web sites (instead of the other way around), that would be a bad thing.
Kornbluth notes, as have so many others, that the Wall Street Journal's web operation is more profitable than its print operation, as if that were some sort of proof of concept of the death of print media. But is the WSJ's web operation fully loaded with editorial costs? I doubt it. Without the cost of creating great editorial, it's easy for a web site to be profitable--look at Yahoo and Google, which don't create much on their own. (It would be interesting to see an analysis of Yahoo's financials with Yahoo having to pay to create all of its own content).
I also continue to believe that a magazine is more than ink on glossy paper. It's an organizing principle, one that has been co-opted by TV newsmagazines and most websites.
Finally, I believe Jesse Kornbluth runs a fine website. If you haven't, you should subscribe to Head Butler for his daily recommendations on media (much of it print).
