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.
I'm there says: | |
Me? I am a very small publisher - it's just me. I do have a website, but don't do much with it. Rather, I made the conscious decision to align with 3 other sites that combined reach more than 40,000 people per day - this is 100 times more than the number of visitors I get at my site.
They host my back issues, give me a forum, spread the word on new things the magazine is doing...and oh yeah, cultivate MANY of their ON-LINE readers to subscribers of you guessed it, to MY magazine.
What do I provide them? Space in the magazine, of course!
This way you work WITH the web while preserving your sanity and money.
Learn more at our in seminar at Mags U called "Kung Fu Publisher"