More bad news on the magazine front (in case you thought my previous post –
http://createworklive.com/2008/11/15/carnage-in-the-publishing-world/ — was too negative).
http://www.magazinedeathpool.com/magazine_death_pool/
The problem, in my view, is that these magazines may be failing in part because of the economy, and in part because of competition from the Internet, but the Internet isn’t really going to replace magazines — either for writers OR readers. Magazines have their problems, but the work is selected, edited, and vetted, it’s sometimes fact checked, and it usually represents a great deal of effort and input from writers, editors, and illustrators.
I’m enjoying the freedom of the Internet as much as anyone. And I’m enjoying the immediaite connection I have with readers. But as someone who has written for Internet sites for going on a decade, I can say that on average, the same qualitiy controls aren’t in place on the Web. And because so much on the Internet is innuendo, opinion, and often outright incorrect, it’s hard to know what to believe.
No, you never could believe everything you read — but some of the long-standing magazines that are in danger of failing represent the closest thing we’ve have to reliable journalism. Blogs and Wesbites are going to have to do a whole lot better if they ever hope to take their place.
In the meantime, writers — AND readers — are stuck out in the cold.
