I’ve always been a big fan of magazines. I love to open one and scan every page, even when I’m not really interested in their subject. Most of the times, I don’t find nothing of notice, and still I observe the layouts, fonts, images… Magazines are the only physical media that is able to create a better reading experience and build a community around it. Some have changed history, others have created heroes and some are even used to liberate people from them fears.

By amyslysly at Flickr.

Online magazines have also taken a step forward in the way to express culture. When there isn’t a big enough (or not centralized enough) target population, surely there will be one on the web. And there you can find magazines of virtually anything, most of them delivered free on digital and others subscription based, supplying (or building) important niches.

Magazine’s content can vary much, even if it’s just about one subject. However, sometimes editors make the error of trying to make a magazine what it is not. I’ll describe a few thoughts I have on their composition, some sections in particular, and where should editors be focused.

News

One recurrent thing I see almost everywhere, is bad use of a news section. Due to their publishing cycle, magazines are not the best way to deliver news. Readers who want to get the latest news, read newspapers, subscribe news feeds, and have several other options to keep better and more quickly informed. But editors, still make room for a couple of pages with outdated news. These are normally very randomly chosen, and since they’re not the field of the writing staff, are very badly founded and fail to correctly inform users. This is specially true on informatics related magazines, where I see that over and over again, probably because it falls under my area of expertise. So if you really want to keep a news section on a magazine, either outsource that section to a team in the news business, or just keep news to one-liners and let users search elsewhere for more information.

Reviews

Another common section that should be rethought is the Reviews. Much credibility is given to magazine reviews and there are publications only based on them. Being an older and more established media, they have easier access to pre-released products, usually sent to them. But few of them fully disclose their connections, making it hard for readers to assert their value. And there are many other factors: depending on the periodicity of the publication, reviews might be made on weeks, days or just hours of use. Add that the fact that the version they reviewed was sent specially to them and not picked randomly at a store. Personally, while I read some of those reviews, I give more credibility to those made by bloggers and normal users, who spent they’re own money on the product and are actively using it. Although other factors like inexperience and expectations might also influence their reviews, there is a big number of different sources available to leverage the general opinion.

On the next article I’ll talk a bit about the major opportunities magazines can take. How can their staffs use their editorial advantage to give readers the kind of culture they want and can’t find elsewhere, the one that makes it a mark in our society.

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