Launching A Digital-Only Magazine

By
12/27/2006 -03:00 AM

A new magazine has hit the women’s lifestyle market but this one is exclusively digital. VivMag is a digital magazine led by former editor in chief of Shape, Anne Russel. It’s one thing if an established magazine decides to offer a digital edition, or decides to stop print production but keep a Web site like Elle Girl and Teen People, but launching a new magazine in a strictly digital format could be risky.

Regardless of how good this digital magazine is (I tried to download it to check it out, but after a number attempts were blocked by my computer, I gave up), they might want to tread lightly. Digital magazines are now more than ever being labeled as ancillary and complementary products to print. At the recent Digital Magazine Conference, a number of magazine publishers were skeptical regarding the lack of return on their digital magazine investments.

Digital magazines are a hybrid media—taking the best aspects of print and the Web and joining them together to create an online magazine experience. For established brands, going digital is another investment in the brand, but for a new magazine like this, I wonder if finding an interested audience and equally as interested advertisers might become an issue.