Another magazine goes digital

And it's a biggie. I.e., The New Yorker.

So not to toot my own horn. But I wrote a little piece in May 2007 in order to graduate from my neighborhood journalism program, and the kicker went thus:

Unless major titles convert their websites into digital communities, then the mainstream magazine industry will trend down, and the niche, independent digital magazine communities will continue to trend up. As time marches on, those two species of magazine websites---digital billboards for the print publication versus digital magazine communities---will become increasingly distinct. And users will grow ever more savvy at recognizing which is which.

[Debbie] Day recently browsed NewYorker.com and learned that the magazine is trying to sell the complete archive on a hard drive that costs $199, rather than make that archive available online. Moreover, there’s no opportunity for readers to comment on stories, much less interact with each other. Day called the site “very, very elegant.” But it clearly lacked the affordances of front-edge magazine websites.

“I’m not trying to put down whatever their efforts are, but I don’t think they’ve mastered the medium,” Day said. “They’re still really dabbling.”