Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Lunchtime Quickie: Christian Side H… | The Red Hat of Shame »

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Media / Tech / Books Will This Save Magazines?

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:25 PM

First, and mostly unrelated: I would very much like it if writers stopped using the term "Team of Rivals" when they refer to cooperation between competitors.

Second, and much more important: The New York Observer says that Time Warner is working with its competitors to build an iTunes for magazines:

The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices. The company will not develop an e-book, but create something that people familiar with the plans compare to iTunes—a store where you can buy new and distinct iterations of The New Yorker or Time. Print magazines will also be for sale.

John Squires, an executive vice president at Time Inc., is planning to leave Time Inc. and become the interim executive of the new company, sources told The Observer.

I would very much like to suggest that this new company brings comic book publishers like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Fantagraphics on board, too, as well as digital magazines like Electric Literature. If I may use another political cliché that has become nauseatingly commonplace: Your team of rivals needs to be all about the big tent.

Share via

Comments (11) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Hmmm.

Nope.

Look, doing things that increase base cost is counter-growth.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 24, 2009 at 12:39 PM

I would very much like to suggest that Paul "very much like to suggest" no more than once per post.

Posted by ohthetrees on November 24, 2009 at 12:47 PM

last night for dinner i whipped up some home made tomato basil bisque soup, along side it i served sharp white cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches (with bacon and pear inside!) on fancy french bread. washed it down with a sangiovese. after i drank all that i popped open a bottle of raspberry lambic. the hot new girlfriend baked a pie afterwards and now my house smells like delicious apple pie (not bachelor!)

im currently eating all those leftovers for lunch.

Posted by derrickito on November 24, 2009 at 12:49 PM

are they tasty now?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 24, 2009 at 12:53 PM

they are fantastic. the grilled cheese with bacon and pear is better the next day than it was fresh off the griddle

Posted by derrickito on November 24, 2009 at 12:54 PM

Who gives a shit what magazines do? I mean, they're like a really, really fringe thing any more anyway. A super-hot magazine might sell 100,000 copies; most have numbers that are far less than that. Out of 405,000,000 people in this country, that's not even a blip.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on November 24, 2009 at 12:57 PM

@6,

330 million people

Posted by keshmeshi on November 24, 2009 at 1:24 PM

@7 - so they're in Mandarin or Hindi?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 24, 2009 at 1:31 PM

@7, that was actually a typo; I had meant to say 305,000,000. But the number's in that general vicinity, yeah. Still a negligible amount of magazine sales.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on November 24, 2009 at 1:39 PM

Don't hold your breath. AppleInsider

Posted by MarkyMark on November 24, 2009 at 7:57 PM

It's funny - when you buy a subscription to Harper's or Cook's Illustrated, you get access to the online version and their archives. But you can't get that without getting the the paper version as well. This to me seems like a great idea.

Posted by Free Lunch on November 25, 2009 at 8:27 PM