[WS:] In addition to many good reasons already mentioned in this thread, I would like to add one that is relevant to print more generally, especially books. When a magazine or a book has been printed - it essentially becomes a public good - available to anyone who can read. Censorship of printed matter is extremely difficult, as it has been demonstrated time and again in Eastern Europe and other authoritarian countries. By contrast, access to electronically stored media is continuously dependent on having an active connection to the source, which can easily be blocked by whoever controls that connection.
Electronic censorship may not be that effective on the web in general, but it is certainly very effective in the e-book market, pushed by the Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Once you get sucked into their overpriced electronic readers (kindle or nook) - - yo are effectively cut out of the used book market. You cannot read anything on those e-book devices unless you have access code, which you can only purchase from the source of that code (Amazon or Barnes & Noble). Consequently, these distributors have a near monopoly and are in the position to sell every publication for the price of a new one. The used book market has been effectively eliminated.
I buy most of my books from used books seller - many of whom distribute their stuff through Amazon.com - so I have a bias toward used book outlets. However, if you think that my Ray Bradbury scenario is too farfetched, just think what happened to to college textbooks. In the not so distant past, it was possible to purchase used ones - but the publishing industry worked very hard to make that more and more difficult (with complicity form the education industry.)
So today students have to buy new textbooks at ridiculously inflated prices each time they take classes.
So the bottom line is that if you do not want freedom of thought be surrendered to commercial interests - keep print alive.
Wojtek
On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 6:45 PM, bhaskar sunkara
<bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com> wrote:
> I know we've visited this topic before (PDFs vs. print-outs, Ebook readers
> vs. bounded books), but I'm curious to hear list member's thoughts on the
> importance-- as /opposed/ to the viability --of print magazines.
>
> Right now, in addition to the site, we have a very cheaply printed
> broadsheet circulating around all the DC campuses (well not Catholic U., but
> who cares about them?) funded by a few local student associations. But in
> the past week I've received a generous subsidy offer from a local-ish
> printer and enough donations to do a glossy quarterly of /Jacobin/.
>
> The logistics of the venture have been poured over, so don't worry about
> that. The design would be stellar, print-quality is super high, and we've
> already put together something nice in Indesign. I wasn't entirely pleased
> with how uneven the first issue was, but things will be better going
> forward.
>
> The question is whether it's worth the investment in time to produce content
> for print. If we've reached thousands of people on the web, is there any
> point to having a pretty magazine in a few indie bookstores on the East
> Coast and in the mailboxes of a hundred or so financially secure readers?
> Is it just a vanity project, pointlessly limiting how much content we can
> include, and unconsciously shaping that content by subjecting ourselves to
> certain market pressures?
>
>
> (Typing this message on Chinatown bus from DC to New York, a good venue for
> bad ideas.)
>
> - Bhaskar
>
>
>
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