Independent work theme: the future of print media

The new-old-fashion way to do magazines

Magazines are also trying to adapt in a non-print world but, compared with others traditional medias, is having a distinguish and interesting way in doing it. The future is uncertain, but in a short-term magazines have been benefited with internet and other kinds of technology like tablets and smartphones. The success of the prestigious american magazine The New Yorker app on iPad demonstrated that it is possible to have a good presence in both print and digital media, without compromising the content or the experience of the reader. Condé Nast, the publisher of The New Yorker, affirms that 16% of the magazine’s sales come from their app, much of them being from ex-print readers (Leslie, 2013). Comparing both printed and digital version of the same issue of The New Yorker it is notice that the same content is presented with different perspective. Interaction and multimedia resources complements the articles, giving something more in the tablet version than on the print one.
Condé Nast’s The New Yorker may be a case of success, but there is still some reluctance from the public. Robert Newman (2014) says that both readers and magazine makers ‘failed to embrace the new magazine apps in large (or even medium) numbers’. Although there is very interesting things being made and released on App Store, using all the resources that iPad gives, there is still a lot of magazines that are replicas of the print ones. Even been a recent field of production, designers and directors see this so called ‘the future of publishing’ (Leslie, 2013) with different eyes than at the beginning, when the iPad was revealed in mid-2010.
Is not just print magazines that are going digital, but the reverse is happening too. It’s Nice That is a blog which mission is ‘champion creativity across the art and design world’ (It’s Nice That, 2014). To balance the lack of editorial liberty that comes with a daily blog, the founders of the website decided to launch a biannual print magazine called Printed Pages, where maintain the compromise to the print world and deliver more in-deep stories and discoveries, and a annual print magazine called The Annual, that brings the 150 best stories from the blog.
It’s Nice That is not the first in doing the reverse way. The internet, principally blogs, are responsible for the rise of independent magazines in recent years. As Leslie (2013) says: ‘Blog and magazine live side by side, supporting each other through their distinct roles’. The print has a appealing side that neither web or tablets and smartphones have, and it is possible to make unique things on digital platforms that is impossible to reproduce on print. This mutualism that happens in the magazine industry between digital and print only confirms that both of them are not enemies, but ways to deliver content for readers.