I’m a big magazine reader. In addition to the many books I buy each year (I have more books in my to-read pile than I can read within the next few years), I subscribe to a lot of magazines. My subscriptions include Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Week, The Economist, American Heritage, New York Review of Books, Business Week, PC World, U.S. News & World Report, The Scientist, Discover, and several more. I begin my day, every day, with a pot of tea and the day’s New York Times and my local newspaper. Between the books I buy and the magazines and newspapers to which I subscribe, I spend a lot of time reading!
I admit to being curious. I like to keep up with what is happening around me and I really dislike the 10-second news blurbs that TV and radio offer (although National Public Radio deserves kudos for All Things Considered). I think being broadly read helps me as an editor.
But times are changing. Magazines and newspapers are struggling. Several that I had subscribed to have folded print editions and are now available online only, such as PC Magazine and a book collecting magazine to which I once subscribed; once they became online-only magazines, I stopped reading them. Unlike the magazines that have made the transition to online-only status, I haven’t followed – I really hate sitting at my computer to read an online magazine: Isn’t spending my work life on my computer sufficient? Do I have to be chained to a computer — be it laptop or desktop — for my pleasures as well as my work? This feeling of being chained to work is one reason why multifunction devices don’t appeal to me for pleasure pursuits.
As illogical as it seems, I actually distinguish between reading on my computer and reading on my Sony Reader, a dedicated reading device. I enjoy reading on my Sony Reader, equally as much as I enjoy holding a print copy of a book. I had thought that I would switch my New York Times subscription from paper to electronic when the Times became available through the Sony store; this was to be the start of my evolution from print to electronic for my magazines and newspapers. But I was cautious and downloaded a single day’s issue to try.
The experience was okay, but not great. Setting aside the slight inconvenience of having to load the Times onto my Sony Reader (my PRS 505 model doesn’t have wireless), the screen size (6 inches) simply wasn’t conducive to enjoyable reading of something as “big” as the Times. Plus there is a tactile experience that accompanies and enhances the reading experience when holding the Times in your hands. Yet, I am determined to make the switch from print to electronic; the questions are when and on what device (and how cooperative the magazine publishers will be).
I’ve been contemplating “upgrading” to the Sony 900, which has wireless and a 7.1-inch screen. I had really thought about the iRex DR 800SG, particularly because of its 8-inch display, but there are just too many things I don’t like about the device, not least of which is that its touchscreen requires the use of a stylus and I think that will be much too easy to lose (and if my cat decides it’s a toy to play with,…). So I’m sitting on the fence and waiting.
I know the Apple tablet isn’t the answer for me for a lot of reasons, but the tablet idea intrigues me. PlasticLogic’s Que also intrigues me but the price seems exorbitant (if not extortionate) for my purposes — I am looking for a device for reading books, newspapers, and magazines, not for checking e-mail, visiting websites, watching videos, and all those other things that multifunction devices permit. I’m a dedicated-device type of person.
I’ve drifted a bit from where I had intended to go with this article, so let me shift my course. Who are the subscribers to newspapers and magazines? I ask because I know my demographics (and, yes, they are still desirable to advertisers even if I am gray-haired) and that surveys show that people in my demographic group tend to be the biggest spenders on and readers of books, newspapers, and magazines. Because those outside my demographic are significantly less focused on these ways of obtaining information, I wonder what the future holds for magazines and newspapers as information sources. What is the likelihood of print versions surviving many more years? And when they disappear, what will the electronic versions be like? Will they be as shallow as much of the TV/radio news reporting and “analysis” is these days? Will we lose access to in-depth reporting and analysis because all that will interest subscribers will be 10-word ”wordbites” of the latest celebrity faux pas?
And what will readers like me do? Will The Economist still be The Economist in something more than name, or will it be more like People Magazine? Will Business Week become just a steady stream of feeds and wordbites? Does anyone but me care?
What brings my concerns to the fore have been my attempts over the past 2 years to extend my subscription to the New York Review of Books. My current subscription expires in 2012 (some of my magazine subscriptions run until the 2020s). Several times I tried to extend my subscription by 3 years, and each time NYRB has declined, saying it doesn’t know what will be so far in the future. I recognize that NYRB isn’t a magazine for everyone (although I think every book lover should be a subscriber; its reviews are significantly better than anything found elsewhere including online, in the New York Times Book Review, and in the London Review of Books), but I would think that it has a loyal base of subscribers and so it wouldn’t be so worried about its future. Like The Economist, the NYRB is not an inexpensive subscription so it attracts the serious and probably faithful subscriber. (Interestingly, The Economist, unlike most magazines, continues to show subscriber growth and without “special subscription deals.” So there must be a desire for this type of coverage.)
Clearly, I am wrong, and if the NYRB is worried about its future, perhaps I need to worry about the future of my subscriptions — and about the quality of reporting that one should expect to see – in the Age of eBooks. What will survive and in what form is worthy of consideration in this transitional period, before it is too late.
Editor’s Note: Rich Adin is an editor and owner of Freelance Editorial Services, a provider of editorial and production services to publishers and authors. This is reprinted, with permission, from his An American Editor blog. PB
I would love to cancel my Boston Globe paper subscription and just it get via Kindle. But, since my wife and I both read it atthe same time in the morning, getting it on 1 kindle doesn’t work. But, having the paper on the kindle is easy and confortable- but I don’t get to see the ads for cultural stuff, which is important to me. Reading it on an iPad might work better. (Forget the Hearst Skiff- my guess is they will cancel the production as the iPad will suffice.)
Magazines are even easier since they are not loaded with pictures, etc, and reading it daily is not and issue. I hope ALL content magazines will issue kindle, etc editions. AND, since, with the kindle, we are used to paying for content, the magazine won’t lose mony by offering its stuff free on the web. So both sides win.
I have no doubt that magazines and periodicals can transition to digital formats. How many will? It depends on how much of an impact the transition has to their bottom line, financially speaking… and from our point of view, it is impossible to tell who will survive, and who won’t.
The basic presentation of periodical content to a digital presentation also needs to change to be as effective for the user as reading on paper (hopefully moreso). The presentation methods recently displayed by Apple (with Adobe’s help) and Bonnier will probably be close to what we can expect from digital periodicals in the future, and further innovation can make them even more convenient to use than paper ever was.
Compelling content and attractive presentation has always driven paid content and subscription services. Digital periodicals will have to take advantage of this concept to thrive. Supposedly, they already have compelling content, else, how did they manage as a paper product? So it all comes down to presentation and effectiveness. If they can whip that, they will have a future in the digital age.
I am throwing my 2 cents more to just illustrate some examples of use. I travel a lot for my job, so having paper delivered to home doesn’t really help me when I am not there half the time. I also have a tiny living space, and much as paper is handy, it just takes up more room than I need to give it. So I have been making a concentrated effort to go as digital as possible and cut extraneous paper out of my life. Most platforms for reading are really suited more for a paperback style format of reading. Magazines and other large format items don’t have many good methods to read in a portable manner yet. The Kindle DX being one of the easier methods. I have personally bought an HP tablet pc for my online magazine reading, which works well since the screen is about the size of a magazine or graphic novel page. There are trade offs to this, such as battery life and weight, but neither are that limiting to me. So in terms of online magazines, you may have already seen Zinio.com which duplicates the magazine nicely and adds a touch of advanced ability like clicking on the table of contents to hop to an article. This happens to work fantastic for me on my tablet, but most people aren’t going to pay the $1000 to get one. The Apple Ipad is going to capture a key reading market I believe for items best read in a large color format, magazines being the most suitable to the size. This tablet format with something like Zinio in place allows me to carry not only my books, but tons of magazines on the road in a nice and easy to read format. And while a bit expensive, the Ipad cost is fairly reasonable considering it’s features. As to not wanting a device that can do more than read, a car can drive across the country, it doesn’t mean I have to use those features if I don’t want to. So while my ipod touch can play music and movies, I use it almost exclusively for reading and the occasional game. The ipad just happed to be a multi purpose device, so use it to the purposes that suit you best. On the magazine front, I think paper will be around for a while, readers for magazines aren’t out there in large enough numbers to expect them to disappear anytime soon. But more of the younger readers are looking at things on computers and phones the bulk of the time, and we need to pursue them on their preferred reading environments as well as the paper ones.