Last year I launched WLA quarterly landscape architecture magazine and it has had a humble beginning and sold a few copies in print and digital…mostly in digital. The reason I selected digital is for many reasons, the biggest was the ability to transport in 0’s and 1’s in digital across the world. Media is changing and many print magazines are closing their doors as the old model of publishing rely advertising with the cover price often only covering large print run and pulping costs.
The biggest issue with publishing a print magazine is distribution and getting it into stores and then sold. There is no guarantee that it will sell and the outlay for 5,000 to 10,000 copies is out of reach for most small publishers. Therefore, digital format is easily to deliver and there is no worry that you’ll be pulping copies (not very environmentally-friendly). Digital allows me to easily publish the magazine in pdf format.
Many magazines are shifting to digital or web format as they revenues from advertising increase as more and more advertisers and adsellers are willing to buy space on web and in digital magazines. Also digital allows for interactivity and customisation something that is very immature. I think digital will see an increase when tablets, formats and delivery networks (4G LTE, etc) will make it seamless.
Digital allows someone in Cape Town, London, New York, Shanghai, Sydney, Dubai, or Santiago to download WLA in a couple of minutes and start reading. That to me is the biggest incentive to start and stay digital with WLA. I am looking at ways to build upon WLA in the future and looking to publish more digitally in the future.