A Web 2.0 magazine of the future
Social networking is transforming yet another business, this time in old-media publishing.
JPG Magazine is doing the ultimate pulp mashup, tapping its community to provide material and vote on what gets published in print. All work is submitted for review by fellow photographers, and those chosen get $100 and a free subscription to the magazine.
As simple as this process sounds, it could have a seismic effect if adopted on a broad scale. JPG is essentially creating a print publication run by readers, drastically reducing the need for a traditional editorial staff. The idea combines all manner of Web 2.0 concepts, such as those behind YouTube (user-generated content), Digg (popularity rankings) and Wikipedia (peer review).
Online publications run by readers have been around for years but rarely extend to pulp versions because of prohibitive publishing and distribution costs. Yet JPG proves that such a publication can exist if the interest and quality of the material is sufficient.
If it works, those who could benefit most are the consumers: Based on this publishing strategy, JPG is bigger (more than 100 pages, up from 64), more frequent (bi-monthly instead of quarterly) and cheaper ($5.99 instead of $19.99).
The concept wouldn't necessarily work as easily for other content as it does for photography. But as the publishing industry continues to reel from declining readership and advertising, experiments like this are guaranteed to get people's attention.
