To begin my thoughts on magazine’s across these two different medium, we must first touch on my personal use of magazines. I myself probably buy an average of three magazines per year, which leaves me no authority to examine magazines through my own experiences.
Wondering how I would be able to analyze a medium that I do not use, I felt as if I had to find out how a true magazine consumer feels. Thankfully my roommate is an avid sports fan and aspiring sports writer. He receives two different magazines in the subscription print form. My roommate uses both print and online magazines seamlessly to receive his daily fix of sports news.
So I began to grill him with questions about how he felt about his magazines and how he interacted with them. At first, I assumed I would receive answers that were obvious, but my roommate proved to have relatively strong feelings about his print versus online magazine usage. He receives Sports Illustrated about every week and ESPN the magazine once a month. When asked if he felt online magazines were going to take over print magazines, I was surprised with his avid position that print magazines would never go under.
You need a computer to view an online magazine, whereas all you need is a physical copy with print magazines. He cited loading time as a disadvantage to online magazines, as well as the difficulty to read for long periods of time from a computer. Another interesting piece of information that I did not previously know, is that some magazines offer free access to their online programs and magazines with a subscription to their print magazine.
I came into this discussion assuming to find that online magazines were overtaking the market for print magazines. Much to my surprise, I found that magazine companies are combining their services across different medium. Instead of vesting all of their resources on a single delivery form, companies are using technology integration. It appears that creating a user friendly environment with both print and online versions of magazines may be the best solution for both the creator and the consumer.
-Evan
2 comments:
I enjoy print magazines myself because I like to take them along with me and whenever I am bored I can pull them out and read them. Whereas with online magazines, first off I never even think about them being online and plus I don't think I would be as likely to read if the magazine was online.
I think you make a good point in your reflection.
All individuals are unique so it is probably better for the magazine companies to targets those people who favor print versions while also catering to those individuals are live online.
I agree that for people who don't have computers or online access, print versions are the best route to take. But for individuals who don't want to buy a whole magazine or who don't want to buy the magazine, online versions provide a cheap solution!
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