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News from the Magosphere March 14th ’11

March 14, 2011 in Archives, Buzzwords, Clever ideas, Death of print, Magazine covers, News round-up | No comments

Australian design magazine redesigns
Looks interesting – wish its international distribution was redesigned also. Speaking of which…

Graphic design magazines of the world
…unite! Michael Bojkowski, art director of Grafik, is writing up a series of excellent summaries of others in their field. Perhaps an interesting international content exchange of sorts could be arranged?

Subscribers don’t like magazine going online only
I’m sure there are sound financial reasons for not offering the option of a refund – and instead asking subscribers to give more for the privilege – but in PR terms, it does seem to have been handled poorly

The best and worst selling covers from 2010
Kate Middleton comes out pretty badly from this

Seven years of The Nation covers
Fiddly navigation aside, this site from designer Stephen Kling contains inside stories, rejected covers and a lot of sharp political cover satire. Hit “Table of Contents” for further tales (via Unbeige)

101 Ways to read the New York Times
Well, almost. Such is the power of diversification

Seven ways magazines are using social media
Not as witless as some of the articles on this topic

Emphas.is launches in beta to crowdfund important photojournalism
Part Kickstarter, part lobbying group, part community forum, it has an amazing board of reviewers, including many top magazines represented. I also love that anyone who funds 50% of a project gets first refusal rights on publishing the result (with the photographer’s approval)

This is the best time to be in magazines!
He’s right, though it’s certainly not the best time to be a publisher

Egoïste returns
Four years since the last one, and as heavy as it ever was (thanks Kati)

If you haven’t got a correspondent…
Call a phone box. Lovely sideways piece of thinking by the SZ magazine

JPG brings in a famous guest curator
Great concept that fits the mag well. Unfortunately, the online preview of the issue only features one photo from the set he chose

Archive magazines online alongside yearbooks, newsreels and music
This kind of contextual linking is only going to get bigger. Can’t wait

Test drive a car on a print ad
Via a natty iPhone app and some smart thinking

How the Businessweek cloud cover came about
Always assuming it wasn’t a conceptual copy of this Italian newspaper supplement cover from January. Sidenote: I’m really enjoying Richard’s tumblrlog experiments

New York is placing archives and unused cover concepts on Flickr
There’s a lot to enjoy right there – you can also follow art director Chris Dixon on Twitter

What happened to the staff after the newspaper closed
They should illustrate and publish their survey via The Newspaper Club, for irony kicks

Videogame magazine nostalgia
Cos it’s not just about the pixels

Review: Newsweek, Part One – The History

March 11, 2011 in Archives, Death of print, Review, USA | 1 comment

A Brit and a woman created and nurtured Newsweek. Now a British-born woman is moving it forward, pinning its hopes on a high-profile, print-digital merger. Can it survive – and is it any good?

I’m dividing this into two pieces, because I think that, in order to better judge and understand the magazine, it would be helpful first to understand something of the history and nature of American news weeklies, and their previous digital forays.

Read the rest of this entry »

Publishing without walls

February 27, 2011 in Archives, Clever ideas, Death of print | No comments

Architecture has long been a popular subject of alternative magazines. Clip Stamp Fold covered the architecture zine culture of the 1960s and 1970s, and now Archi-zines is trying to do the same for the present day, curated by Elias Redstone.

It’s currently a small list, but growing quickly – sadly no RSS feed right now, but it’s well worth checking back regularly to follow this evergreen genre of alternative urban thought through magazines.

News from the Magosphere Feb 26th ’11

February 26, 2011 in Archives, Clever ideas, ipad, Magazine covers, Trend, USA | 1 comment

Why fashion struggles with race
A really good piece on the colour barrier faced by fashion editorials and the catwalk – and why societally the “paint chip” theory doesn’t work

Eye gets a preview of Port
Review here when I can get my hands on it

Slate writer hates his iPad
The backlash is strong with this one

How a publisher is dealing with the OnePass/Apple subscription situation
Fascinating reading. The key for the big players seems to be “be everywhere, but hope Android on tablets gets big enough to force Apple to back down”

Marie Claire Brazil goes 3D
3D fashion apparently also featured in new mag Archetype X (about which I can find nothing at all except for descriptions of this shoot – does it even exist?)

A round up of books about zines / comic books / small magazines
Contains short summaries of a few things worth knowing about

i-jusi exhibition hits London next month
Well worth checking out their back issues at that. Speaking of which…

Mute offers complete set for 200 pounds
Intelligent mag that did some interesting design things in the late 90s (disclosure: I interviewed Cory Doctrow for them once, eight years ago)

Indiana University student magazine actually well designed
Text’s a bit ropey, but it sure is purrty

People create their own Top 10 magazines
No, don’t ask – I wouldn’t know where to begin

A fascinating-looking Chinese magazine blogger
Sadly, I suspect something is lost in the Google Translation

The world’s first mag mogul

January 20, 2011 in Archives | No comments

If you’re interested in the history of this strange industry, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’s entry on Edward Cave, the world’s first magazine proprietor (at least, the first to use the word) is available for free for the next three days.

His Gentleman’s Magazine seems to have been one part Wall Street Journal, one part New Yorker, one part Reader’s Digest, two parts The Week. Which might not do too badly today, though you’d probably have more problems with syndication fees.

Cave himself was a printer who worked for the Post Office. Professional production and confirmed distribution – no wonder the magazine was a success.

News from the Magosphere January 2nd ’11

January 2, 2011 in Archives, Fashion, ipad, News round-up | 3 comments

An excellent roundup of where we are, iPad-wise
New tablets – and a new iPad – this year might shake things up again

A list of American magazine distributors
One of those lists that you didn’t know you didn’t have before. Can we expand it internationally in the comments section?

Nike makes shoes out of old magazines
But will they do it out of magazines of my choice? Then we’ll talk

What readers want in their iPad magazine ads
Until someone makes something else they want

UK’s Channel 4 launches anti-fashion mag game
Contains fake versions of Photoshop tools to make its point, along with thinly disguised spoofs of Vogue, Heat, Nuts, Glamour and Men’s Health. It’s a smart idea – however, playing it simply feels too much like work. Remember kids: Photoshop isn’t fun

The Last Newspaper exhibition catalog is now available
Get them while they last (disclosure: I advised them on it, and wrote a couple of pieces). Full content listing here

Cardiff University’s Mapping the Magazine 3 conference calls for papers
Should be a fascinating event

Chinese literary magazine gets closed down after one issue
“If things continue like this, China will only be known for tea and pandas”

Texts from a secret magazine made by children in the Terezín ghetto
Published weekly for two years, until most of them were sent to Auschwitz. A documentary is apparently in the works; Wikipedia has more