idiomag

Nikki Preston has written an interesting article over at mad.co.uk, questioning whether idiomag should be called a “magazine”. As she points out, a magazine is a “periodical publication containing articles and illustrations” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. And although idiomag publishes new articles periodically (idiomag’s update period is every 3 hours), some might believe that the title of “magazine” should be reserved only for weekly or monthly publications.

The lines have become blurred by the proliferation of online publications, and as Arif mentions, most people nowadays are happy to leave the definition of ‘magazine’ pretty open.  Following Guy Consterdine’s assertion that when discussing magazines, one must separate content and form, I have made our case.

Content:

idiomag might be regularly updated – one of the key advantages of being online – but the content it offers could be described as ‘magazine’ content. By this I mean that it is not ‘newsy’ content, which must be immediately consumed. Instead, idiomag is designed to be consumed in a ‘sit-back’ manner, without being particularly time-sensitive. To this end, each reader’s content stays in their magazine for 30 days – so they can choose when to read it.

Form:

We have described idiomag as using a “virtual magazine format”, and this format does set us apart from most online publications. The content structure and reading style is primarily linear (like a magazine), not hierarchical (like most websites), the interface is engaging (like a magazine) rather than text-based (like many websites), and in addition, the features such as the page-turn and the archive function (which dog-ears a page to indicate that you might wish to read it later) all bear a striking resemblance to a print magazine.

Even the advertising in idiomag (when it comes) will be reminiscent of print magazines - i.e. large, glossy formats that sell a brand experience (like most glossy magazine advertising), rather than a product (like most banner adverts online).

Anyway, that’s my tuppence worth. I’d be interested in hearing your opinions!