Opportunities and Constraints for Independent Digital Magazine Publishing

Abstract

Optimists have long hoped that digital communication would diversify media, but the realization of this dream is far from certain today. This study investigates the emerging opportunities available to independent magazine publishers through digital publishing methods, such as distributing their magazines through the Apple Newsstand. These publishing methods have the potential to diversify magazine publishing beyond the currently dominant offerings of major multinational magazine publishers. However, at the same time, a variety of limitations—software and design expertise, public awareness and interest, and technology companies’ constraints on publishers—may have already limited the ways these independent publishers can reach audiences. Through in-depth interviews with independent digital magazine publishers, this study illuminates the effects of these factors on these publishers’ efforts to offer varied new perspectives to the public within the digital magazine medium.