It’s not often nowadays to see a digital first company delve into print. But that’s exactly what industry publication Digiday is doing.
The US trade media publication is launching a brand new quarterly print magazine to focus on the current and future trends of the media landscape.
The magazine’s concept was born from the publication’s annual publishing conference after listening to head honchos debate the explosion of content platforms.
The first issue looks at the rise of social media becoming publishing platforms. It’s 60 pages long.
“The modern publisher is facing fast-changing and challenging times,” senior editor Lucia Moses writes in her ed’s letter.
“The rise of platform giants like Facebook offer unprecedented ability to reach new audiences, but content distribution and monetisation is often outside publishers’ control. It’s enough to make you want to crank up the printing presses. While Digiday is at its core a digital media company, we thought the printed format was ideal for exploring these critical issues in a thoughtful way. Pulse is our way of periodically checking the vital signs of the media industry.”
The second issue, coming out in June, looks at programmatic ad buying and the challenges associated with it.
While it’s a print publication, Digiday noted at the end of its introduction there’s only a limited number of copies available, referring instead to a download link to the electronic publication.
But while it’s not the status quo to launch something in print, given everyone’s confusion as to whether print is dead or not, publishers are still chancing it.
Yes, circulation numbers are dwindling – some more rapidly than others – and a number of titles have carked it in recent times.
But others are seeing success. Both Kidspot and Taste.com.au launched from digital to a print product.
And NewsLifeMedia’s print titles are even seeing slight increases in their circulation figures.
