It'll be like the Matrix...but with magazines

The Internet!

Probably the greatest idea since strike anywhere matches, the flying disk, and the lateral pass. How has one not-even-physical place captivated so many of the world's businesses, gamers and intellectuals, not to mention countless others? The answer is simple, as it is generally the root of all evils. Money.

Coin has been known for a long time to make the world go round, and its power over the American human is generally felt in the day to day grind of things. The question is, how does money relate to the internet, and how do those relate to magazines?

A trend that is becoming more and more popular in the magazine industry is to not only supplement a magazine with an online edition, but in some cases replace the print edition entirely with the online version. This trend has created a symbiotic relationship between a print magazine and its cybernet companion, as both help each other increase readership and sales via advertisement.

This can have a reverse effect. Earlier this month, Conde Nast announced 106 year publication House and Garden will finally meet its date at the gallows following its December issue. It was also announced that the entirety of the staff will be laid off. In a semi-surprising move, House and Garden's website was also shut down. This is only semi-surprising since Conde Nast did the same thing with Jane when it folded in July. Conde Nast spokeswoman Maurie Perl was quoted in an article on Folio's website as saying "The Web site was a companion to the magazine and if we closed the magazine the Web site followed."

In the same article quoting Maurie Perl, Folio took a look at several magazines that had folded their respective print divisions but had kept the online publication alive. NickJr. posted 4 million unique visitors in July, not bad for a publication that folded in February. ElleGirl.com, one of the first print brands to keep its web site up and running, is actually growing. This growth means that there is money to be made. So now we have the combination of magazines and the internet coming together to make money. But is the magazine industry, both online and in print, about to face the same fate as many other United States businesses? Everybody knows homegrown is usually the best, but can the American magazine industry fight outsourcing?



One mag that has recently decided to make the switch is Tango, a two year old women's
magazine about relationships. According to Folio, Tango has decided to make its quarterly into a yearly themed edition, but plans to update its tangomag.com website multiple times a day with interactive content and features in addition to social media tools. CEO and founder Andrea Miller says "Focusing on a digital platform will enable us to grow much more quickly and allow us to create an active, engaged community of women around our content". See, that's what I personally love about cyberspace, it makes everybody the Little Engine that Could.

However, in what might be the signal of the start of major change in the magazine industry, Tango, in deciding to ramp up its online edition, has hired two positions for its "digital platform" and in turn eliminated one position for the print-based edition. Perhaps this signals a trend, or at least the beginning of one. "The print magazine was key to putting us on the map," says Miller. "A digital platform will allow us to grow much more quickly and better leverage all that we have done to date." With plans to enter the magazine into licensing deals and sales & marketing partnerships to extend their brand in additional ways, Tango, as a model for potential joint internet and publication success could very well become the Little Engine that Did.