3.30.2009
MagCloud: Self-Niche Magazines
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Imagine some very focused hipster magazines - the glossy kind you see on the back racks of your local megabooks store in the arts / photography / fashion / imports sections.
Now imagine that you can publish one of these tomes - your selected material with your own stylistic imprimatur.
"Dwell" Becomes "Dwell SF" - new titles, like "Bohemian Cigar Afficinado" or "TechnoClub" Dissect very narrow lifestyle bands. The same could go for science, sports, city locales, or just about anything that commands a focused audience - maybe even large myspace pages or facebook "other public figure" domiciles.
This would be the desired outcome for magcloud, an HP product that lets artists/editors become publishers by handling the entire back end operation from printing to binding, once the digital files are designed, according to the NY Times. Getting distribution and involving advertisers would seem to be key. A website, blog, journal or fansite/bandsite can suddenly go glossy, Madison Avenue traditional media.
Maybe this is part of the future for the magazine industry, which offers the kind of high-touch experience that newspapers do not.
Labels: berkeley, bohemian, dwell, magazines, MagCloud
