Digital Publishing - The Future of the Magazine Industry?

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ROB WEINSTEIN -  One of many businesses influenced by the recent economic slowdown was that of the newspaper journal publication. An evidence of it is the decreasing trend in ratecard-reported advertising sales from 2007 to 2009 as published by the Publishers Information Bureau. The year 2009 definitely had the worse amounts using a severe 18.1% decrease in advertising sales. Revenues amounted to $19,450,949,762 compared to 2008's $23,652,018,533 overall rate card-reported ad revenue. The 2008 figures to the other hand, was 7.8% lower compared to 2007's advertising revenues.



ROB WEINSTEIN - The fall in advertising revenues and advertisement pages created has forced many magazines to cease publication. The famous which is Gourmet magazine, closing last year after nearly 70 years in publication. Although the recent economic downturn could have experienced the best effect as to why a lot of publications went out-of business in the last 3 years, it can't be entirely blamed for the industry's challenge. With the developing technologies and also the rise of the Internet generation, audiences have changed interests. Many have preferred gossip sites over celeb magazines, on-line cooking guides over recipe books. The World Wide Web has become the number one source of information.



To adjust to the decreasing advertising sales and at the similar time to take advantages of the broad reach that the Internet provides, several publications have resorted to getting a digital edition for their paper publication, or have entirely abandoned paper and embraced digital publishing. An online magazine software could produce paperless magazines which don't need logistics costs in order for copies to be transmitted to subscribers, a feat which is quite helpful in reducing costs for publishers. Also being paperless means zero contribution to consumption and paper waste.



The answer to whether or not electronic publishing is the destiny of the magazine business is still unsure. Digital media publishing has opened endless opportunities, benefiting not just publishers but subscribers as well, though many folks still favor flipping through glossy pages.