The first study (PDF) of magazines and their various approaches to websites, undertaken by Columbia Journalism Review, found publishers are still trying to work out how best to utilise the online medium. There is no general standard or guidelines for magazine websites and little discussion between industry leaders as to how they should most effectively be approached. Following the responses
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Property Week has launched what it claims to be the first online, interactive business magazine, Property Week Global Interactive. PWGi, which is is free to read, will be published four times a year alongside the original Property Week Global, and emailed to its newsletter subscribers. The publication is dependent on advertising, but publishers have not ruled out exploring other revenue-raising
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It is always fun when a hoaxed piece of research gets past all the filters and makes the newspapers, but what does it teach us? This is a report from the Hungry Beast team in Australia, “proving” which part of Australia is the most gullible. The answer is, apparently, “the media”.
Take a look at this: These are blog posts, tackled with the attitude of a magazine designer. There’s a whole lot more in this post at Smashing Magazine, which looks at the rise of the ‘blogazine’, and interviews four of its leading exponents. Stunning stuff – well worth a read. Now, is there a plugin that makes this as easy
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In the last year or so there have been a number of new blog / news sites developing which provide commentary for a geographically identified area, covering politics but also giving a more rounded view of life in the area.
The site which has drawn my attention recently is The Lichfield Blog, which I mention on the Wardman Wire or on Twitter (follow me to keep up to date) from time to time. There are examples of sites with a similar ethos established for some time, including some personal blogs, and I’d mention Londonist and Dave Hill’s Clapton Pond Blog but also sites such as Created in Birmingham and Curley’s Corner Shop (South Tyneside).
Some areas have a range of local blogs. The tiny Isle of Thanet, for example, has Big News Thanet, Thanet Life and Thanet Online, in addition to the more idiosyncratic Thanet Coast Life, Eastcliff Richard and even Naked in Thanet.
And if you think that Thanet is small to have all those local blogs, try the Plight of Pleasley Hill, an ultra-local blog specifically created to foster community in an area of 3 or 4 streets in the Nottinghamshire village of Pleasley Hill, near Mansfield. I did a podcast interview with Mark Jones, who has triggered the project, for the Politalks podcast.
Some of those sites have political stances, and some don’t. The common factor is that they provide coverage of local life and grounded politics.
As an enthusiast for the rejuvenation of local politics, I think a more varied local media is an excellent trend.
I’m developing a list of sites aiming to rounded provide coverage of a defined local area, town, or community. If you run a good one, or know of one, please could you drop me a line via the Contact Form on the Wardman Wire.
Elsevier, the Dutch scientific publisher, has announced details of their grandly titled Article of the Future project. Their prototypes, published at http://beta.cell.com, are the result of what Emilie Marcus, Editor in Chief, Cell Press called, “…a challenge to redesign from scratch how to most effectively structure and present the content of a traditional scientific article in an online environment.” Prototypes
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Chris Deary, Community Editor at Hearst Digital, adds his 3 things he’s learned about community management to this ongoing series. 1. Know your audience Understand your audience and give them community tools that are designed to meet their needs. There is a tendency to want to throw as many community tools as possible on to a site without considering what
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“The future of magazines is glorious,” said Simon Wear of magazine house Future UK, wrapping up the industry event ‘What Happens to Magazines?’ held in London lon Monday. “Both print and online,” he added. He would say that, though: Future has been selling a successful 1.7m magazines a month through the recession with its hobby and geek-lad magazines. As written
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I’ve just been casting my eye over the Magazine Production work of two groups of second year students on the journalism degree I teach on. In addition to design and subbing, they were assessed on ‘web strategy’ – in other words, how they approached distribution online. To give this a little context: early in the module ideas for magazines had
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Shaun Milne, founding Director of digital publishing company Planet Ink, shares his decisions and ambitions for new online-only magazine ecoforyou. Why did you go for a turn-page magazine format? There were a number of good reasons, not least it is a fairly straightforward skill to learn. We purchase the technology on license so we don’t need to know much about
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