So it’s been traditionally very hard for an individual or even a small group to break into the magazine publishing industry, since large printing companies charge an arm and a leg to print just a few hundred copies of a perfect bind mag. Custom publishing is changing all that and now Hewlett Packard is looking to make an even bigger splash with their new service, MagCloud.
The service will charge 20 cents a page to print, which will only be paid when a customer orders a true copy of the magazine. Since the service is aimed at consumers who will most likely use it for personal projects, the Times is likening it to “vanity publishing’s equivelant of YouTube.”
Hewlett is looking to capitalize off this service by creating demand for its large digital printers and pricey ink cartridges. While it is not yet clear how popular this service will become, there have already been close to 300 publications made just in the testing phase, with topics ranging from Mormon art to food photography to the history of aerospace. Yet many worry that with blogging as accessible and as FREE as it is, why would people choose to pay to produce content, which they would also have to wait to receive from a printer?
Now the switch in the biz model here from traditional to digital printing is this. Traditionall technology relied on “replicating a single, fixed image in volume to achieve cost-effective scale.” On the other hand, with the new digital presses, a company “can print one copy of 10 magazines of 10 copies of one magazine for about the same price” because all it takes is press the “power” button.
This is the problem I encountered when thinking about this next idea. What I’m thinking about is having the Business of Media class using MagCloud next year to produce a weekly bound magazine to report on their industry instead of keeping blogs. Now of course that would cost some money, but I’m sure NYU could figure out a way to make it happen. But again, if they can make blos for free online, why start sheling out cash for print copies?
