The Changing Magazine Business

Back in the day (and I'm talking the 1980s here) I used to wait eagerly for the next issue of Amateur Photographer, after all, printed magazines were just about the only way to find out about new products and get photography advice. Photo magazines thrived throughout the 80s and 90s but with the rise of the Internet as a source of good information, specialist print magazines started a slow decline and began to cast around for new ways to survive.
I have been involved in publishing Better Digital Camera magazine in Australia for the past four years, as well as working with Peter Eastway and his Better Photography magazine (which is still in print BTW). We have been scratching our heads about diminishing news-stand sales and so inevitably we looked at digital delivery.
We didn't want to do the same magazine recreated as a simple PDF download - that's not clever or interesting. We wanted to harness the elements that has lead to the iPad selling over 100 million units in the three years ...