Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
Of all the facets of the print industry, magazines and newspapers are in the most trouble as with all the news sites, hobby sites, blogs etc. they're just largely unnecessary. Forcing people to pay to get info they've already gotten for free online by the time the print editions are out.
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Neither info nor writers are created equally. Yes the easily digestible news bites that many are satisfied with are best grabbed off the net from (often very poorly written) blogs, feeds etc. But there still is and, imho, always will be a place for well-researched and expertly-written, in-depth content produced by profesionals.
At least that's what I get from magazines and it's why I still buy them through Zinio subscriptions. I even find weekly news recaps such as Time and the Canadian equivalent, Macleans, worthwhile. The Zinio edition of Macleans has many active links that take you to even more background with a click. Nothing fancy nor full of iPad-specific bells and whistles, but useful added value nevertheless. 52 issues of that for $39 is very much worth it.
The type of material that's becoming less worth paying for is the immediate coverage of fresh news stories. That and the use of paper are the parts of journalism that are in jeopardy and likely to die as a something people would be willing to pay money for, but I think digital mags with more background and detail have a bright future...once they work out the format and pricing kinks that is.