Discussions

Will all print magazines become digital?

Posted by TheEargasm • 1/25/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: eargasm, free mixtapes, hip hop music, lil mixtape, mixtape torrents, online magazine, songs

Will we see within the next 5 - 8 years the transition of traditional print to digital publications? TheEargasm.com (www.theeargasm.com) is a online music magazine. Will we start to see more online magazines with podcast and mobile compatibility? Will the traditional printed magazines vanish over time?

User Comments

1/25/09

MadameX

Over time, perhaps, but I don't think that quickly. Certain kinds of magazines thrive on the hard-copy format, even though the material that's in them is already widely available online. One example that comes to mind immediately is the teen magazines that contain pull-out posters and such. You can't hang a website inside your locker or on your bedroom wall.

[reply]
1/25/09

annz

I think many will - it is cheaper to publish on the web than to deal with printing, mailing, etc costs. But I agree with MadameX, there are some magazines that will probably take a lot longer, and some may stay print for a long time. There are some advantages to print - the portability and high resolution being some big ones. It's still very difficult to read text on handheld digital devices, and text is pretty low resolution. Magazines and journals that provide a lot of images (like the teen pull-out posters mentioned above) or high-end photography/art magazines, or even some academic journals will probably stay print for a long time until we have something that is very widely used that can display those images well. Not to mention, some of the academic disciplines are still really resisting the move to online - I know a few professors in history, theater and dance, and literature who cannot conceive of ever reading their academic literature online. Some of them are young. It will be more than 5 years until they're ready to more online.

[reply]
1/25/09

AlexGreat

Yes I believe paper editions will live only in museums next to hand written and illustrated bibles and cuneiform tablets.
Paper is static and not interactive.
Paper magazines will follow, vinyl records and Betamax if anyone here is that old to remember

[reply]
1/25/09

BloggersSchool

Not all but most for sure.

[reply]
1/26/09

aarron

Many people like print magazines, bookss, etc... to the point they will not switch over. I am one. I use the online versions of some of my favorite print magazines, but if I didn't have the print magazine I wouldn't visit them online. I buy about 2 print magazines a month. I buy about the same in books.

I don't think many of those magazines will do well without good web presence in a few years, but they are not going anyplace soon unless we get a new technoligy to replace them. The internet does not feel like or read like a printed magazine.

If you have seen Bablon AD... the map he uses is interactive and will be possible very soon with the way tech advances. That tech could maybe oust the printed magazine. The net (as we have it) can't do it.

[reply]
1. 1/26/09
  
  hypnotips
  
  Yes, they've already got disposable paper-thin computers working. Nothing being used on the public yet, but the technology is already there.
1/26/09

Sway

yes...

[reply]
1/26/09

aarron

Paper thin computers that bend and fold... I will love that.

[reply]
1/26/09

troilee

As much as I hate it, I agree that most magazines (and book publishing, for that matter) will be mostly gone in the next 50 years, definitely 100 years from now. Those of us "paper" folks don't feel we'll ever full switch to electronic media and that may be true, but we're the graduating class. The younger generation already lives electronically. When they're my age, electronic media will be the norm and print media will be the old-school novelty (sort of like leg-warmers now - ugh).

VG

[reply]