[thelist] online magazine

[Aleem Bawany]

Andrew, don't mind if a take a shot at this (disclaimer:
I am not business savvy)

> Has anyone been involved with type of distribution? If so
> any copmments and inparticular insights regarding these 3
> questions would be really helpful.
> 
> What are the pitfalls if any?
> Does it effect offline (from the shelf whs) sales?
> Is it cost effective?

Promoting your content to the internet medium can only be a good thing.
If people like the web version, they will probably want to subscribe
to the hard copy (which hopefully offers much more content). If
you intend to put up the magazine online in its entirety, then you
will still be offering your potential readers more mediums to choose
from - and should they prefer the online version of the
magazine they will surely not want to spend more money just to
recieve a hardcopy of what they just read online (which is
why most magazines offer some online articles for free to promote
the hard copy - I read business2.com from time to time and end up buying
the hard copy if I find the online issue interesting). You will probably
want to consider the different revenue models or subscription schemes
and
calculate the cost benefits yourself.

Your magazine is probably in an electronic format already, before
it goes for print. It's just a matter of changing the layout to suit
the web or streamlining the process for web publishing. If it's an
IT magazine I guess you wouldn't even be asking this question, but
only you can weight out the costs (it depends on your target
audience).

aleem

[ http://aleembawany.com/ ]