Web Magazine Research Articles

Exploring a successful magazine web site

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide a multifaceted exploration of the motives and success factors of a magazine web site.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an explorative single case study of a Finnish magazine web site. The analysis is based on triangulated data (semi‐structured interviews, observation, statistics, and documents provided by the magazine publisher).FindingsThe case illustrates that a magazine web site supports all the three functions (editorial, circulation, and advertising) that are vital to a magazine's success. Moreover, virtual community activities seem to have enhanced customer loyalty and added a more lifelike dimension to the magazine concept.Practical implicationsMedia managers should look at internet presence from a more multifaceted perspective rather than merely focus on the revenue streams. Operating online services should be valued and exploited alongside the development of the print product.Originality/valueThe value of this research lies in the notion that the web site may complement rather than replace the print magazine.

An Online Success Story

The aim of this article is to provide a holistic exploration of the development of the business model of a magazine Web site, and of the factors behind its success. The discussion is based on an explorative case study of a successful Finnish magazine publisher and its Web site. We use triangulated data (interviews, observation, statistical data, customer feedback, newspaper articles) to describe and analyze the development of the Web site and the subsequent changes in the e-business model of the magazine from the Web site foundation in 1998 to the situation in fall 2004. Our case illustrates that a magazine’s Web site is linked to all of its functions (editorial, circulation, and advertising), and to the business-model elements that are vital to its success. We suggest that the discussion forums in question, one type of virtual community, benefited from the positive feedback that resulted in positive network effects, and led to the adoption of the service. Moreover, community activities have enhanced customer loyalty and added a more lifelike dimension to the magazine concept. As such, the Web site now complements rather than substitutes the print magazine. Interestingly, although it does not independently fulfill the requirements of a successful business model (e.g., Magretta, 2002), it enhances the customer experience and adds new dimensions to the magazine’s business model.

New Periodicals

This semiannual column selectively lists newly issued periodicals; describes their objectives, formats, and contents; and provides information about special issues, title and format changes, mergers, and cessations. The following resources were frequently consulted when assembling this column: International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP; http://music.chadwyck.com/), Music Index (MI; http://www.hppmusicindex.com/), RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (RILM; http://www.RILM.org/), OCLC WorldCat and Ulrich's Periodical Directory (http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/). All Web sites were accessed on 23 November 2005 unless otherwise specified. New Titles Acoustics Research Letters Online (ARLO). Edited by D. Keith Wilson, US Army Cold Regions Research Laboratory. Acoustical Society of America. Quarterly. Vol. 1, no. 1 ( July 2000). Online format (PDF and PostScript). ISSN 1529-7853. Access: http://scitation.aip.org/ARLO/top.jsp. Subscription: Acoustical Society of America, Suite 1NO1, 2 Huntington Quadrangle, Melville, NY 11747-4502. E-mail: asa@aip.org. $150 institutions, free individuals. ARLO is the electronic journal of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), a society devoted to all aspects of acoustics. A rapid publication journal posting articles as they become available, ARLO articles are processed on "PeerXpress—a web-based manuscript management system, which includes peer review using many associate editors and reviewers of The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ( JASA). ARLO articles are searchable and linkable through the Scitation platform of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), which publishes and archives articles for ASA" (http://scitation.aip.org/ARLO/). Multimedia content is accepted. A bimonthly CD-ROM, currently only available to subscribers of JASA includes recently published ARLO articles along with the current issue of JASA. From March 1999 to September 2000 ARLO was published as a section of JASA. Articles published during this period are also available online at http://scitation.aip.org/arlo/archives/articles.jsp (PDF). All issues are browsable and keyword searchable. The subject coverage of ARLO includes speech, music and noise. In addition, ASA has a Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics, which is particularly interested in the "physics of musical sound production, psychoacoustics of musical perception, music cognition, and analysis and synthesis of musical sounds and composition." For more information on the Acoustical Society of America's Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics see: http://www.public.coe.edu/~jcotting/tcmu/. Chaise Magazine. Coedited by Bennett Barbakow, Michelle Higa, Noah Norman, and Chris Smith. Creative Arts Council, Brown University. Semiannual. Issue 1 (2004). DVD-ROM format. Subscription or inquires: Chaise Magazine, 97 N. 3rd St., No. 1F, Brooklyn, NY 11211. E-mail: info@chaisemagazine.org. Free (postage is required). For more information and specific postage amounts see the Chaise [End Page 769] Magazine Web site at: http://www.chaisemagazine.org/. Distributed free on DVD, Chaise Magazine is a collection of art and music featuring the work of artists, animators, filmmakers, computer programmers, and composers, particularly emerging artists. An interesting collaboration between art and technology, Chaise allows for the display of art and music without the traditional mediums of gallery spaces, concert halls and record stores. The companion Web site, http://www.chaisemagazine.org/, posts exhibitions, calls for artwork, tutorials and links to other art resources, and showcases artists from the magazine. The "patented CHAISE technology can support videos, films, music, radio plays, sound experiments, photography, digital stills, interactive text, paintings, performance/installation/sculpture documentation, 2D/3D animations, MAX/MSP/Jitter applications, Director/ Flash animations, Java applets and anything else that fits on a DVD/DVD-ROM." (http://www.chaisemagazine.org/about/). DOWN Magazine: Dedicated to Southern Hip-Hop Music and Culture. Down Enterprises. Bimonthly. No. 1 ( July 2005). ISSN 1554-8945. Print format; includes a compact disc. Subscription: Down, 124 Durham Ave., Metuchen NJ, 08840. $20. For more information see the magazine's Web site: http://www.downmagazine.com/. Jeremy Miller, a former Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics executive, launched DOWN Magazine because "Southern artists are dominating the charts but are underrepresented on the newsstands." DOWN attempts to provide an alternative to what Miller calls an "East Coast" perspective in mainstream coverage of...

Ouch!: An Examination of the Self-Representation of Disabled People on the Internet

This article is based on a qualitative study of representations of disability by disabled people on Ouch, a BBC-owned web magazine produced largely by disabled people. Analysis was conducted of a sample of articles from the website in order to examine how the medium of the Internet influenced the content of the website, how disabled people were represented in the articles on the website, and how ideology and power were expressed through the discourse on Ouch. The findings reveal a different type of representation from that offered by the mainstream traditional media, which is argued to result from properties of the medium and the staffing of the site by disabled people. The findings add weight to current critiques of disability theory, in particular that the current social model of disability does not adequately explain the reality of living with impairment and disability.

From Picas to Pixels: Life in the Trenches of Print and Web Publishing: An Interview with Rick and Andy Alfaro, Editors of FILE Magazine

“They Might Be Giants” gets a facelift, tackles a new medium and welcomes a co-editor. Michael Brown and Jessica Teeter bring you this first installment of “From Picas to Pixels: Life in the Trenches of Print and Web Publishing.” This installment features an interview with the publishers of a Web magazine called FILE Magazine, A Collection of Unexpected Photography.

Strategies for Selling Paid Content on Newspaper and Magazine Web Sites: An Empirical Analysis of Bundling and Splitting of News and Magazine Articles

Strategies for Selling Paid Content on Newspaper and Magazine Web Sites: An Empirical Analysis of Bundling and Splitting of News and Magazine Articles

Strategies for Selling Paid Content on Newspaper and Magazine Web Sites: An Empirical Analysis of Bundling and Splitting of News and Magazine Articles

More and more newspaper and magazine Web sites offer paid content. However, selling information goods at a price higher than the marginal cost means finding a strategy for product or price differentiation. A possible strategy to solve this problem is the bundling of information goods. In this article, we analyze empirically, with quantitative statistic methods, strategies for selling bundled and unbundled content on newspaper and magazine Web sites. This analysis is based on the theoretical approach of Bakos and Brynjolfsson (1996). The article shows that a cannibalization takes place if the same bundle of information goods is offered in offline (printed) and online (digital) media at the same time. Traditional bundling models work nonetheless in an online media if the online content is rebundled (e.g., as dossiers about a topic), but thereby do not compete with the printed version.

Thumbing Their Noses at "The Man": An Analysis of Resistance Narratives About Multinational Corporations

This research project examines the narratives that emerged in alterations of corporate billboards and advertisements. The altered billboards were found in Adbusters magazine and the magazine's Web site-particularly the "Creative Resistance" campaign developed by the publishers of Adbusters. Through the use of narrative criticism I construct a resistance narrative that glides throughout all of the altered billboards and is paramount to the anti-corporate movement and culture. This resistance narrative is based upon the identity of the culture and corporations that they resist, the cultural values of both the anti-globalists and corporations, and the political community that is constructed from the resistance artists' calls to action. The resistance narrative that emerges provides empowerment that is necessary for community building in the anti-corporate movement and culture.

The Ariadne project: an evaluation of a print and Web magazine for library and information science professionals

Reports on an evaluation of the Ariadne project, which involved the production, from 1995 to 1998, of a print and Web magazine for library and information science professionals. Ariadne was one of the few Electronic Library projects aimed at providing a service to this community. The results of the survey indicate that Ariadne has filled a gap and has helped to interpret electronic library issues for librarians and information scientists. Following the completion of this project, a Web version of Ariadne continues to be produced by the UK Office for Library and Information Networking on a quarterly basis.

The Ariadne Project: an evaluation of a print and Web magazine for library and information science professionals

The Ariadne Project: an evaluation of a print and Web magazine for library and information science professionals

COOL IMAGES: Sunburst of Inspiration

This is an analemma, the figure-8 pattern the sun traces as its position in the sky shifts from season to season, due to Earth's tilt and elliptical orbit. Dennis di Cicco captured the analemma in the late 1970s by bolting a camera to his house in Massachusetts and opening the shutter about once a week, at the same time in the morning, for a year. It's the first photo of its kind made, says di Cicco, an editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. And it's one of 22 astronomy images in a poll at the magazine's Web site to let readers choose “the most inspiring [images] of the 20th century.” The top 10 vote- getters will be featured in the January issue. Pick from those posted—including galaxies, a nebula, comets, and a moonrise—or nominate one not on the list at http://www.skypub.com/ (For more about analemmas, visit http://www.analemma.com/)

Webby science awards

Two science sites on the Internet downloaded kudos at the 1998 Webby awards on March 6. Dubbed the Oscars of the Web, the awards presented by Web magazine this year honored Starchild, an astronomy‐oriented Web site for children ages 4–14 in the education category. The San Francisco Exploratorium, a hands‐on science center, won in the science category.Other nominees included NASA's Pathfinder site and the Smithsonian Institute. They were among 6000 Web sites reviewed by the magazine.