Jason Unger

Video Blog: Renewing My PC Magazine Subscription

Posted by junger - 12/12/08 at 12:12:38 am

This is what happens to your renewal notices when the magazine goes digital only.

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Confession: I Like Magazines

Posted by junger - 04/07/08 at 09:04:53 am

For a guy who has been making Web sites since he was 14, this might come as a surprise to you, but yes — I like magazines.

Yeah, I know, it's very anti-"new media" of me, but magazines still have a place in the world. (Newspapers do too, but that's another story.)

I actually subscribe to a number of magazines (mostly because I get them for free) and enjoy leafing through them.

Working for a magazine publishing company (running Web sites), I get astounded when print people think their product has any timeliness. It doesn't. You can't run news in magazines because it takes six weeks to produce the product and get it out to your readers.

So what does that distill magazines to? Feature stories, mostly. And big pictures.

Paper will always have an advantage over digital media when it comes to pictures. There's nothing like a two-page spread of a sunset or a slam dunk or the running of the bulls.

Magazines come with an experience that new media doesn't. You sit down, you relax, you kick your feet back and you open up a magazine. It's a completely passive relationship.

Online, the experience is much more active. You can post a comment, blog about it, or just surf away.

Magazines certainly have a place in the new media world. But they can't compete with digital communication when it comes to breaking news and participatory conversations.

It doesn't matter, though. It's a different experience. Not better, not worse. Just different. That's why I like them.