PDF publishing

The idea of online web 'zines has been around for a while, as has the idea for photocopied street 'zines. What I like is the new fusion of paper style publishing in an online format; putting a PDF of the magazine on the web so that readers can click through the pages just as they would flip through the pages. My friend at Austin based magazine Misprint started doing this. While they do print and distribute some copies, they don't use advertising and they have a limited budget so they publish their magazine as a pdf in the order you would read it with split pages just as if it were in your hands. Austin magazine Box also publishes in this manner.

I realize that part of the appeal of magazines is the tactile experience, the luxury of buying something you don't need, carrying it on the bus etc. But there are UK magazines that I'm not willing to pay $100 for a one year subscription, but would be happy to pay a smaller amount to have access to a digital copy in this format. I actually prefer the PDFs to reading the stories online because I don't lose any effects of the layout and I'm seeing everything in context. I think as digital and print media start clashing and sorting things out this will end up as one of the solutions.

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