Just wanted to note the passing of mygazines.com, the magazine uploading site that appeared to aspire to become the YouTube of magazines. Turns out that legal woes and financial troubles got the best of the service, just a few months after opening its doors.
Too bad, because it was a great idea, despite its copyright problems. I wish more publishers would catch on to the idea that many of us would prefer to read magazines electronically -- and might even pay a little to do so. (Ask Zinio -- we really do!)
Below is the message now posted on the service's homepage.
Posts
7 comments:
I would absolutely prefer buying ebooks. A few of the magazines I read provide PDF versions. Better, the subscription is less, and I have an archived, searchable DB of articles I find interesting, and it's easy to send quotes to friends, or incorporate them into my own electronic documents.
Keith
Hi Keith,
Good points.
You'd think advertisers would be pushing publishers toward e-magazines, too, since readers are more likely to see their ads in ezines than they are in RSS feeds.
Thanks,
kal
This site caused a lot of consternation here in the UK, as it was seen as basically just ripping off content from within the magazines. I work for a software company in the magazine market, so I'm aware of some of the concerns of publishers. It is more complicated than just throwing up magazines via Zinio or on PDF. Dependent on the type of title (B2B or B2C), the magazine could be audited, and electronic copies are more difficult to audit than printed ones sold on the news stand. And audit figures normally control the amount that can be changed for advertising, which then controls the profitability of the magazine itself.
I feel a blog post coming on...
Hi Howard,
I'd think that in a model like Zinio's circulation would be much more accurate and easier to track than it is in print. After all, it's easy to track sales/downloads, and you can even measure page views, time on a page, etc.
Since online views wouldn't affect your print circulation count, if you continued to rely on the print numbers to set ad prices, I wouldn't think you'd have a problem.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, because I don't know much about this area of magazine distribution at all. (Only done the editorial side.)
Thanks,
kal
Kal,
Instead of leaving a long comment here, I've posted an entry on my blog. I hope you don't mind me dropping the link in here.
http://howardrobson.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2E7E8ACD81C54AC!140.entry
Howard
Hi Howard,
I don't mind at all. In fact, your post prompted me to blog a response back to you. Check it out here: http://kalnel.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-view-of-electronic-magazines.html.
kal
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