Perhaps one of the best examples of a traditional form of media hybridizing to contend with the changing times is Paste Magazine. Formerly a print magazine, Paste made the transition to online as a method of coping with financial difficulties, eventually going fully digital and ceasing to produce a paper product.
Prior to that they'd attempted a non-technical but still modern strategy of inviting subscribers to pay whatever they wanted for a year's subscription, a la Radiohead. While this was fairly successful it ultimately wasn't enough to sustain a print publication especially amid the economic downturn of the late 2000's when revenue from advertising was at an all time low. The move to web-only was a last ditch effort following a fund-rasing campaign.
In May the magazine announced that it would bring back it's weekly subscription service in a digital layout available for iPad and Android tablets- getting on the bandwagon of smart phones and other digital media applications that seem to be spreading like wildfire.
The publication's content and quality appears to have remained much the same (A level of quality attested to by multiple National Magazine Award wins.). Articles (see this one on R.E.M. breaking up) include widgets to enable readers to share content to social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter. Although there may be an argument to be made about the prestige of being a paper publication versus purely digital, for most intents and purposes Paste appears to be thriving in its digital incarnation.
Prior to that they'd attempted a non-technical but still modern strategy of inviting subscribers to pay whatever they wanted for a year's subscription, a la Radiohead. While this was fairly successful it ultimately wasn't enough to sustain a print publication especially amid the economic downturn of the late 2000's when revenue from advertising was at an all time low. The move to web-only was a last ditch effort following a fund-rasing campaign.
In May the magazine announced that it would bring back it's weekly subscription service in a digital layout available for iPad and Android tablets- getting on the bandwagon of smart phones and other digital media applications that seem to be spreading like wildfire.
The publication's content and quality appears to have remained much the same (A level of quality attested to by multiple National Magazine Award wins.). Articles (see this one on R.E.M. breaking up) include widgets to enable readers to share content to social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter. Although there may be an argument to be made about the prestige of being a paper publication versus purely digital, for most intents and purposes Paste appears to be thriving in its digital incarnation.
New Twitter Feed Subscriptions (In Progress):
-Margaret Atwood (writer)
-Neil Gaiman (writer)
-The Atlantic (magazine)
-APStylebook (as opposed to FakeAPStylebook, which I was already following and adoring)
-PittTweet (University account)
-Paper_Cuts (Editors of the NYT Book Review)
-KeepCalmandCarryOn (British propaganda is never not relevant)
-fuggirls (Nonfiction writers of a sort)
-HuffingtonPost (newspaper)
-NBC News (...NBC News)
-Neil Gaiman (writer)
-The Atlantic (magazine)
-APStylebook (as opposed to FakeAPStylebook, which I was already following and adoring)
-PittTweet (University account)
-Paper_Cuts (Editors of the NYT Book Review)
-KeepCalmandCarryOn (British propaganda is never not relevant)
-fuggirls (Nonfiction writers of a sort)
-HuffingtonPost (newspaper)
-NBC News (...NBC News)
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