Not the magazine shop of the future

Magcloud is an online magazine shop selling digtal print titles. It looks interesting until you examine it closer and realise like other forms of digtal publishing, it turns out to be a far more expensive proposition than traditional publishing.

While Magcloud is digital and the shop is a website, it isn’t online publishing.

Instead it invites you to buy printed titles that are custom-published to order using something called HP Indigo technology. Once your magazine is printed, Magcloud mails the item to you.

Unlikely to catch on

Will it catch on? I doubt it. The first title that caught my eye when browsing through the wares on sale at Magcloud was something called emDash. It’s a magazine put together by George Mason University Graphic Design students and is a showcase for the student’s design work.

As you’d expect, it is a very good-looking magazine. But, a single issue costs US$7.70 for a 48 page publication. The only advertisements are house ads – so your $7.70 buys concentrated editorial without any hard sell.

Even so, that’s very expensive – more than NZ$11 for just 48 pages. Magazines in New Zealand shops are typically half that price with double the pages or more.

EmDash’s price is typical of the publications currently on offer.

Hewlett-Packard print business

There’s a tie-in with Hewlett-Packard's printer business somewhere behind the Magcloud scenes. But the relationship isn’t made clear at the web site. Or if it is, I couldn’t find it.

So, you pay more for a title that you would in a conventional magazine shop. You wait considerably longer to get your hands on your purchase. And you have to jump through some hoops creating an account to use the service.

On this basis Magcloud is not the magazine shop of MY future.