gDoc

The strike by UK Royal Mail workers over the last few weeks has ended but during the action I was intrigued by how many magazines arrived with notes telling me how to get hold of an electronic copy if my next printed one was delayed in the post.

I hadn’t expected quite so many of the publishers to have the facility to provide a good enough electronic delivery service as a fall-back. I’m now wondering how much this expedient response to a short-term need might affect long-term magazine deliveries?

There are already plenty of titles that can be read online; will this increase the trend in that direction?

There are a different set of technical issues around electronic deliver, including rights management and on-screen readability, for instance. It’s possible the publishers who have jumped into making digital files available in a rush because of the strikes may be put off from rolling out a larger scale, permanent solution by the teething problems they’ve likely encountered.

I’d be interested to hear views on the impact of this kind of short-term event on the long-term future of magazine distribution.

Personally, I read a lot online already, but if I subscribe to a printed magazine it’s because I want high-quality images, or because I stare at a screen for too much of the day already and want to be able to kick back and relax with it. I cling to the belief that it makes me discriminating, rather than just a Luddite!