Even as a small kid, I would spend any library time in with the periodicals. It simply amazed me that one could find magazines for just about any interest or hobby. After I left college, when the world was much more analog, magazines were a great way to spend time in transit. They were light-weight, cheap, and easily available. Just as in my youth, one could find whatever information in which one was interested.
In the last decade and a half, unfortunately, I have fallen out of love with magazines. I would look at a publication that I religiously used to purchase, say PC MAGAZINE, and then remember I could find most any of that information online. It was never in one place, nor was it easy to read in online form. But hey, why waste money on the paper version, I reckoned.
I found something yesterday which may really affect my lackluster relationship with periodicals. Accidentally I discovered www.mygazines.com on an Internet news site. It was discussing how it is clearly breaking copyright by allowing members to scan and post PDF copies of publications. I had to visit for purely technical curiosity, of course!
It is fantastic as they've implemented an online reader app that is, indeed, usable. It's easy to zoom out to see the articles through the whole publication, flip through two-pages at a time, or read single pages. There's a whole Web 2.0 underpinning where one can share interests with other friends on the site. It's easy to bookmark for later reading and the list of wonders go on and on.
The best thing is seeing the old familiar static page format with all the advertisements. In some magazines that's the most important part. I can see how publishers hate this but it just shows how lacking they are in keeping up in the digital age. I'm sure that any money I spend in a store for the magazine is entirely consumed by the logistics of its distribution. It must be the printed ads which pay for the content creation. That can remain the same.
I don't want to read an HTML-based version of a magazine. I hardly ever log on to a site such as Slate. I'd prefer the old glossy format on a laptop via PDF. Combine that with exciting advances in Internet sharing and current publishers could actually increase the readership of brand name publications. They just have to get over the idea that their businesses are dependent on ink!
I hope Mygazines.com gets the chance to live long enough to force a shift in paradigm.
