Magazine and Book Have A Baby

In a first-quarter recession/obsession, let the journalist’s pre-New Year's resolution come in a tight little package of hope - "Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair," said philosopher Edmund Burke. Additionally, Mr. Magazine offers more than a glimmer of hope in his recent blog posting as he sites a post-9/11 New Yorker article poking a pin-hole of light in the end of the dark tunnel. Mr. Magazine writes, "For those of you who are feeling the pain of today’s economic crisis, you will find solace in reading James Surowiecki’s article titled Let the Bad Times Roll. Here is one quote from the article, ‘But history suggests that for new magazines hard times are good times.’”
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/09/03/010903talk_the_financial_page?printable=true

A majority of the major titles from Automobile Magazine to U.S. News and World Report keep one hand waving for help above the rising tide by launching on-line accompaniments to their print publication, but other publications are taking an alternative route – Book + Magazine = Bookazine.

Of which, the best example is recently folded alternative country music magazine out of Seattle befittingly titled No Depression. Previously published six times a year, No Depression relaunched as a bookazine and will now run two times a year in a paperback-bound, large-format read with no advertising and cost $20. In an interview with The News & Observer, “Dave Hamrick, associate director of UT Press, hopes that readers won't shy away from the higher cost, given the new format and its lack of advertising.” Magazines have long-time been collector’s items for their subscribers and Hamrick desires that the bookazine will encourage more cataloging.

Similar hopes surrounded the creation of Shell, a hair and beauty bookazine. The Times of Malta paints Shell as “a coffee-table book with a difference…a cross between an art publication and magazine content. It is 70 per cent pictorial, resulting from about 24 photo shoots, producing about 100 images.” Mastermind behind the bookazine, Pierre Camille, told reporter Fiona Galea Debono, "Unfortunately, so many good magazines end up in the bin..." But Shell should not have the same predicament.”

Bookazines not only spawn out of economic crisis, but also out of environmental consciousness. Loft, a Nordic bookazine offers a look into life-styles in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The quarterly publication boasts, “‘BOOKAZINE’ because we want to create something worth keeping.” Loft leads by example against the common current of reading disposable material contributing to global crisis and continual waste of irreplaceable resources. In an effort to create a timeless publication, Loft also works toward a sustainable future.

Bookazines are not a complete wave of the future. In 2008, Mother Earth News published its second bookazine in six years, Mother Earth News Bookazine: A Guide to Home Energy Savings, which is a collection of their informative articles. Likewise, Jaguar, Ferrari and Porsche have published bookazines with various publishing houses as their wing-men to catalog years of hot-rod excellence. Dennis Publishing released a FaceBook bookazine, following 15 previous publishings of similar nature on topics ranging from the Ipod to men's fitness.

This bookazine baby is another way magazine publishers are filling the glass half full. Mr. Magazine gives optimism again in his interview with David Carey, Group President at Condé Nast. Carey offers, “Out of these periods of time new ways of doing business emerges…new thinkers, new readers…”