Monday, March 15, 2010

Vintage Life Magazine



Vintage Life is the first magazine, projected to appear in print, to be launched initially as a digital magazine available through the Exact Editions digital magazine store.

then it may be time to take out a subscription to Vintage Life magazine.

Is there a small element of irony in this situation? The most obviously 'retro' magazine in the Exact Editions e-commerce system has started its publishing life with a digital edition of its first issue. Print can follow at the pace of print, but for immediate access and instant reaction a digital edition is the ideal offering. We will know that the magazine business has turned the digital corner when the big magazine companies start launching new projects as digital-only, or digital-first, products.

That the mainstream consumer magazine industry is in a bit of a pickle is embarrassingly obvious from this bizarre promotional video from six industry leaders released last week (Ann Moore, Chuck Townsend, Jann Wenner et al) "Magazines, the Power of Print" (YouTube, two minutes of cringe-making, hilarious, viewing). Of course, these luminaries are right: magazines are wonderful resources with huge attractions for their readers, but CEO's must be careful not to look and sound like rabbits caught in the headlights of the on-rushing internet juggernaut. Magazines need to get the power of digital.

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