January 2009

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What happened to JPG

January 14, 2009 in technology, Trend | No comments

A quick summary for those who haven’t been keeping up:

• JPG is/was a photography magazine created by 8020 Publishing, originally based around community submissions to their Flickr group.

• It was founded as a print-on-demand hobby magazine, and then turned professional in ways its husband-and-wife founders, Derek Powazek and Heather Champ didn’t like. The founders were given the boot; Powazek went on to help launch Magcloud and Fray.

• JPG‘s sister magazine, a short-lived travel magazine also created from online submissions called Everywhere, was suspended in August 2008. (Disclosure: I wrote for it once, by invitation – which seemed somewhat to go against the whole ‘community created’ thing to me.)

• On 1st January this year, 8020 announced that JPG was closing. The Faith issue was the last one. No irony intended, I’m sure.

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So what do you think?

January 11, 2009 in Correspondence | 3 comments

I’ve been Blogsploding on here since April, and it’s about time I asked you, the humble lurker, why it is that you keep returning to this humble page/subscribe to my little RSS feed.

Would you like more reviews? Or fewer reviews? More news? Do you enjoy the interviews? The general articles? Are you pining for guest bloggers, competitions, talk of classic magazine titles alongside trendy upstarts? Do you ache for the day I’ll get a proper camera and a decent lighting set up, so my pictures of magazines aren’t so blurry?

Am I writing pieces that are too long? Not writing often enough? Do I focus too much on the mainstream, on the UK, on myself? Which have been your favourite or least favourite entries so far? Do you want fewer disturbing pictures of scalpless dolls from art exhibitions in Barcelona? (I hope so, I don’t have any more)

Is there, in other words, any other form of blogging entertainment that I can perform for your magazine-loving pleasure?

Please help me make this blog even better. It’s over to you, so click Comments now and speak your brains. The best suggestion/s will win something pretty from my magazine collection.

Thank you kindly.

News from the magosphere 9th Jan ’09

January 9, 2009 in News round-up | No comments

Unselfish Heller reveals vintage magazine source
Contains all the big hitters: Life, Flair, Harpers, New Yorker, Fortune… just be prepared to bid against Steven

Men’s Vogue to be reverse-bound with Vogue
A smart short-term solution to keep jobs; long-term future still suspect, though

What’s wrong with Vogue?
“Vogue has become stale and predictable” according to the NYT blog; plenty of quotes to back it up, too. Miesel aside, it certainly pales in daring compared to Vogue Italia and Vogue France. But could an American audience handle such bravado?

Roundup of how Google Magazines is doing
“We talked about digitizing it for years, but could never justify the expense” – a phrase which applies to far too many magazines. Still, not everyone can formulate a successful digital strategy, and not everyone is interested in trying, which is where the big G comes in

Cute new PDF fanzine about Tokyo/China
A bit short on content and focus, but very nice looking and a decent start from two Italians living in Tokyo. Worth the download, if not worth keeping; I’d love to see a Japanese expat PDF zine made in the west, as a contrast (via Jean Snow)

Mag roundup of 2008
Decent roundup of mags they’ll miss and covers they loved (which I almost universally didn’t. I do agree with many other people’s favourite though)

Ink-saving typeface
Not yet there, but a decent-enough talking point / piece of PR

Colophoar

January 8, 2009 in Colophon | No comments

Aaaand we’re back.

More blogsplosions tomorrow, but as Jeremy rightly points out, we’ve announced the ten magazines who will be creating 3D versions of themselves in gallery spaces at the next Colophon. I won’t reveal who backed whom, when, and how in that meeting room in Luxembourg in the middle of last year, but suffice to say that, several hours later, bloodied and sweating, we emerged with a list that we’re really rather excited about.

The selection is intended to represent just some of the variety and energy that exists in the independent sector – as well publications that we think will put on a hell of a show.

Just to remind you, Colophon2007′s list was:

Carl*s Cars (Norway)
Coupe (Canada)
Frame (Netherlands)
Omagiu (Romania)
Rojo (Spain)
S Magazine (Denmark)
Shift! (Germany)
Street / Fruits / Tune (Japan)
This is a Magazine (Italy)

And for our next trick:

BabyBabyBaby from Mexico

Good from the States

IdN from China

Karen from the UK

Kasino A4 from Finland

La Más Bella from Spain

Liebling from Germany

Nuke from France

Sang Bleu from Switzerland

Volume from the Netherlands

Fine mags, all. Unlike in 2007, when we focused on one venue, these magazines will take over spaces throughout the city, with various shops and cafés between them offering special deals, the cinema will show magazine-themed films… in other words, for the weekend of 13-15th March, the whole city becomes a magstravaganza.

You’ll be there, right? Buy your Flashpass now!

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