Coverage of long-time print magazines shifting towards an all-digital format has left many audiences feeling as though the ending of an era is appearing closer in view. Countless stories of a publications journey reaching the proverbial fork in the road being forced to choose a substandard existence over death have been told. Needless to say, this approach should not be done with a cautionary tale of tragedy and dejection, or as either necessary for survival, but acknowledged as an alternate avenue for publications to venture upon to stay on the continual path to success (instead of it being an ‘if/or’ situation, but more as an ‘also/additional’ decision to be made). Even though a last-ditch-effort approach has resulted in some cases, the overall condition of the industry remains on shaky but good ground.

Magazines came to life with the Edifying Monthly Discussions launched in Germany in 1663 and leading the trail as the first modern general-interest magazine, was England’s The Gentleman’s Magazine, published in 1731. Today, there are over 200,000 magazines in print worldwide with an average 20 billion paid copies in circulation monthly (both figures conservatively estimated). (more…)