I'm laying down to make a point about you and I starting online businesses together from the ground up. Just because we are artists and designers does not mean we have to go about business in only the conventional manner. Today I talk about my new project and how I'm going to generate an income with this new project, documenting each step in order to show you how you can do the same with your passion project. Magazinedesignshop.com is the new project and we talk about all aspects of self publishing your very own magazine. … [Read more...]
Should You Publish Your Passion Projects?
January 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I haven't talked about magazines in awhile, but another astonishing story about mainstream periodicals went out this week. Time Inc. which includes TIME Magazine, it's counterparts and subsidiaries, says it will lay off 700 people from its workforce because of a dramatic decline in ad revenue. Back in October, Newsweek announced they were going to stop publishing the print version of their mag and go strictly online, which seems like an inevitable future for just about any publication that relies on the timeliness of their content. I'm sure TIME is not far from making that same announcement themselves, but I'll leave that at my own speculation. I don't really want to go off on a tangent about the destruction of mainstream publications because it's an almost foregone conclusion that the magazines we are accustomed to seeing on the newsstand will dwindle quite a bit over the next few years, especially as electronic tablets become more prevalent. The real question you should be … [Read more...]
Magazine, um, Tuesday: Another Sign of the Coming Apocalypse?
October 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ring the death knell; another giant has been felled. Newsweek Magazine announced this past week that they are shutting doors on the print version and going 100% digital with their content. For a "news" organization, this seems like it should have happened years ago, because even though they produce their magazine weekly, it's never really new information, thanks to the speed of the internet. Breaking stories are live in seconds rather than days or weeks, so it makes sense that entities like Newsweek and Time magazine might make the decision to ditch their print counterpart. So what does this mean for the magazine industry? For the more mainstream media, we'll likely see more of this over the next couple years. I highly anticipate the magazine section of your favorite bookstore or super market will decrease in size by a considerable amount. I meant to publish this post yesterday, but got wrapped up in my own daily grind. For today only, this is Magazine Tuesday. On the … [Read more...]
Tyler Brûlé of Monocle Magazine Orders You to Innovate
August 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I've always like Monocle Magazine for a number of reasons, and now I know it's because the editor-in-chief, Tyler Brûlé and I share a mindset. One of my favorite quotes, when talking about publishers moving toward tablet editions, Brûlé states, "I'm still waiting to see a sustainable advertising model for this format", which has become a pervasive argument among editors I know. The people up top want digital solutions because it's the hot, new thing, and we're pushing forward with iPad versions of several magazines. There's a lot of man hours being burned on these digital versions with no clear way to pay for them yet. Brûlé's main point is that digital versions of the "same old thing" are not the answer. There's no innovation being made in magazines. The paper, the edit, the photography and even the designs are all so similar, it's hard to differentiate between any of them. I have this same conversation with coworkers almost weekly. Everything we do looks exactly like … [Read more...]
