RIP ESPN The Magazine

[Lugnuts]

Is there anyone here who sees a paper magazine these days, and it almost makes them angry? Like, "We're still doing this?" Paper feels gluttonous. The only time it feels okay for me is in a doctor's office. Somebody explain that.

My hope is all the amazing writers move into creative content that includes the written word-- in longform, just as they have been doing-- as well as video and graphics. I know that will make a lot of you gag, but there's some really cool work out there.

 

[playthrough]

Is there anyone here who sees a paper magazine these days, and it almost makes them angry? Like, "We're still doing this?" Paper feels gluttonous. The only time it feels okay for me is in a doctor's office. Somebody explain that.

My hope is all the amazing writers move into creative content that includes the written word-- in longform, just as they have been doing-- as well as video and graphics. I know that will make a lot of you gag, but there's some really cool work out there.

I'm angry when I know that everything is online for free, that's what makes paper feel gluttonous. SI still has some good takeouts every 2-3 weeks when the print issue actually comes out, but those are all online. I feel like I'm getting the print issue for little more than the letters to the editor.

 

[poindexter]

Is there anyone here who sees a paper magazine these days, and it almost makes them angry? Like, "We're still doing this?" Paper feels gluttonous.

I only get a paper on the weekends now, and I feel that way about the Sunday paper.

 

[Lugnuts]

I'm angry when I know that everything is online for free

It's not, though.

The device on which you read it was not free, and more pertinently you're also paying for the internet service.

We just haven't figured out how to pay the content makers yet, but I think we're tap dancing near the cusp of a solution.

 

[playthrough]

It's not, though.

The device on which you read it was not free, and more pertinently you're also paying for the internet service.

We just haven't figured out how to pay the content makers yet, but I think we're tap dancing near the cusp of a solution.

But the content makers have to want to be paid. I'm flabbergasted by how SI gives away the whole shop, from mag features to the "Vault," which should have been behind a paywall the minute it went live.

 

[Lugnuts]

I'm hugely anti-subscription based.

I have never liked that model.

 

[typefitter]

I'm hugely anti-subscription based.

I have never liked that model.

It's basically the only model that works in print anymore. The Times, the Post, the WSJ, the Economist... you need to make a product that's good and different enough that people will buy it.

 

[AD]

we are in a place now where even journalists do not read print...and their editors/bosses don't see/care about any scoop that isn't online. when the people most traditionally aligned with print don't value it anymore, why should casual readers? welcome to the end of the gutenberg era. we all saw this coming, but it still amazes: the moving image is how mass information, news, storytelling will be consumed. print will always exist, but it will be niche not necessity.

 

[Alma]

I'm hugely anti-subscription based.

I have never liked that model.

Unless you want Internet providers to artificially throttle load times based on who pays for the quicker loading services, subscription might be the only thing that works.

 

[nickp]

Best ESPN the Magazine cover was Steve Francis with Destiny's Child

 

[bumpy mcgee]

 

[HanSenSE]

Playing off Lugnuts' post, of late the only place I see any magazine anymore is a doctor's office.