Get Your Magazine The Green Way

 

Image by wolfsavard 

For many years the only way we read magazines, books or newspapers were in their print format.  But like many companies over the last year or so, publishers have recently been feeling the affects of the economy.  People just aren’t buying and/or subscribing to their favorite newspapers or magazines like they used to. Why? Some say it’s to save money, others just don’t want newspapers or magazines lying around and others feel since they can get their information online why bother getting in print? 

To emphasis the situation further, even the New York Times Metro Desk recently cancelled all their newspaper/magazine subscriptions.  They stated, “If reporters want to check out the competition in the Post or the News, they can buy their own copies.” 

Do newspapers and magazines realize that going digital is the way to go?  I mean, less for the landfill is always better for the environment, right?  Many have already turned to the internet for purely economic reasons.  They can run their own websites where they provide subscribers, readers and visitors with up-to-date information, news, entertainment, articles, blogs, etc.  Some also provide links to their recently printed newspaper and/or magazine. 

What about moving to digital for green reasons though?  And what about those who just don’t have the resources to go digital or would rather just maintain their print version.  Well, they’d be smart to check out Zinio.

Zinio is currently the largest online newsstand in the world with over 50,000 digital magazines and books and e-stores in 15 languages.  Their focus is not just a green focus (print less, waste less) but a interactive focus as well.  They want to connect magazines and books with readers, subscribers and fans so we not only get to read our favorite magazine and/or book but we can interact with it as well.  We can do searches for specific articles, share our favorite quote with a friend, post it on a social media site or even save parts of articles we are interested in.  I know that would be something that would come in handy to almost any researcher, blogger or writer.

Then if publishers are looking for marketing services to help their bottom line, Zinio offers those as well.  Their marketing services can help publishers contact and get new customers from around the world.  Basically they offer the ability to increase circulation and ad revenues without increasing distribution costs.

As for people like you and I, Zinio offers easy access to a wide variety of magazines or allows us to get one specific issue (just like you would get at the newsstand), they offer a great resource for doing term paper or even blog research and an easy way to read new books, etc.  But what do you think?  Would you rather get your magazines and books online or just continue to get them in print?  Is going digital really the way to make the printing industry “green”?