Friday, April 03, 2009
Which comes first: print or online?

In the magazine industry, the typical state of affairs is that the print product is primary, and web comes second. The bulk of the resources (be that time, money or staff) go to print, and online gets just enough to survive.

Which is fine, if your only goal is to succeed in print. But if you want to have a truly great website, you can’t always see it as second best. After all, you’re not just competing with other magazine websites. You’re competing with the entire online world, including many amazing websites with no print product to worry about at all.

Obviously revenue is an issue here. Our websites just aren’t bringing in a comparable amount of money as our magazines. But let’s be clear: while many magazines are still cherished by many readers, they’re not all going to survive the Internet age, and those that do will have to evolve. The web just does so many things better than print.

So when making decisions about your website, stop and think: is this the choice I would make if the website were all I had? Or am I doing this because I think of the website as a complement to the magazine?

If it’s the latter, that’s fine. Just be sure that it’s a conscious decision – and you’d better be confident that it’s the right one.

- Kat Tancock
About Me
Kat Tancock
Kat Tancock is a freelance writer, editor and digital consultant based in Toronto. She has worked on the sites of major brands including Reader's Digest, Best Health, Canadian Living, Homemakers, Elle Canada and Style at Home and teaches the course Creating Website Editorial at Ryerson University.
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I'm there says:
breesir, to answer your question, the reason magazines don't have dedicated web editors is quite sim...
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