There's still room for new print magazines. Design students in Amsterdam have just published a new print magazine, Odd. The beginning of 2010 saw 56 new magazines on US newsstands and if you think that's just a chance number, the figure for June, the latest given on the Mr Magazine website is 77.
In 1986, Samir Husni published his first Guide to New Magazines listing the 234 new magazines that I was able to find and document in 1985. The 25th Anniversary edition of the Guide will be out soon listing 704 new magazines that were first launched in 2009.
If you subscribe to the Magazine Launch feed from http://www.magazinelaunch.com run by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) you'll get their regular notifications -- and they are only the publications that make use of their service.
Among the most recent titles scrawere: Honor Student, Wine Press, Vintage Magazine, ChopChop (a food mag for 5 to 12 year olds!), Livestrong Quarterly (for cancer survivors and supporters), Parents of Color, and a number of regional magazines. The latter seem part of a strong trend in publishing.
All of these are in print, though all seem to have strong websites and, often, web editions. One innovation which cannot be duplicated online is the scratch-and-smell cover.
So, while much effort goes in to finding a profitable means of having an online publication, it seems the most popular and successful way is still with a "dead tree" publication backed up by online extras and promotion.
One problem for publications which would like to be online is that a high quality file is still massive if you are to compete with printed graphics. Even publications which cater for the graphics industry find it necessary to resort to slimmed down versions for those without really fast broadband connections.
And I wonder how many other people have the same problem that I do? I subscribe to a top quality online magazine, and download it the instant I get the email advising that it is available. But often I do not even get to glancing through the PDF. It sits there on my desktop until a week or sometimes two later I will print out a sad looking grayscale version on my laser printer.
A print magazine goes to our lougeroom where it will be read during rest periods or while watching TV. Sure, I can take a wirelessly connected laptop there too, but I seldom do. Reading on screen is not a relaxing exercise, reading a print magazine is.
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