That was quick.
No days off in the new year. It's two days into January 2009 and the first magazine has landed in the Reaper's lap.
Cross Flickr with magazine publishing and you get JPG, where anybody could submit photos and hope they would get published. Of course, this admirable concept was bound to fail because you can, uh, just go to Flickr or Google Images and find all the images you want for free.
The Reaper was sending in family photos but they were rejected because there was not enough light. Duh!
Nineteen issues later, JPG folded because there was not a penny to be made from the idea.
That just about wraps up 8020 Media, which closed their other magazine Everywhere in August.
Who's next?
This magazine was just plain stupid.
Posted by: Jermo | January 03, 2009 at 12:49 AM
All of these type of ideas are stupid. Magazines are over. They will become extinct. Web to print is like pulling a dinosaur from a tar pit.
— Obsolete
Posted by: Chris | January 03, 2009 at 08:27 AM
I went to their website, snore. Flickr is better because it doesn't try to be trendy or snooty. Most of these rags can't die fast enough for me.
What are the chances of mag content going to Kindle? Just wondering, I don't own one.
Online has all the advantages: correctable, immediate, multimedia, bidirectional, eco-friendly. Print is doomed.
Posted by: V Davisson | January 03, 2009 at 09:29 AM
Print is not doomed; I'm sick of hearing this tired old rhetoric - IT WILL NOT DIE AS A SIMPLE RESULT OF THE WEB. People like to read things on paper. Give anybody the choice between reading a book from a screen or from paper - I'd bet that paper would win 99% of the time.
As an object, as a media, the book, the magazine, the printed word is still very much alive and kicking.
Posted by: Peed Orf | January 05, 2009 at 07:00 AM
Agreed, V. Davisson - print is preferable. The transition from print to digital content will happen because many publishers will not be able to afford to continue with analog magazines. The economics are against us. People may not want to read magazines on the web, or a Kindle, but accelerating production and distribution costs mean that print will be hard to maintain.
Posted by: Wayne K | January 05, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Peed, reading a book is very different then reading a magazine clip. You're not there to be engrossed for hours, so eye strain is not a concern - you're there to entertain yourself for minutes to an hour or so. Plus you can flip through stuff or search for exactly what you want. "the printed word is alive and kicking" this blog is proof against that. It's amazing the people that don't get it.
Posted by: Nathan | January 06, 2009 at 01:01 AM
Well, in JPG's favor, it was curated at least. On flickr you end up scrolling through all kinds of crap photos, despite what you enter in your search. With JPG's print issue, you could see detail in the photographs you can't see on the web and you got a selection of high quality, interesting images (probably should have had more high-quality writing IMO). Of course, for many many purposes and reasons, the web will TOTALLY replace print, but there are a lot of reasons to publish something in book or magazine form. I think the monthly magazine may be, overall, doomed, but I think that books and quarterly journals and such will still be viable for quite some time. I think, though, that the magazines and journals that sustain a print presence may end up being many not-for-profit, rather than commercial, ventures. That is, assuming the economy can support the continued presence of grant money (also not looking bright). That or the commercial mags that stay around won't be used as profit-earners but as brand visibility for a company with multiple other product types. A lot of things are working against the world of publication besides the internet (mostly the economy and having previously a glut of specialty publications). It may not be a good time watching what will happen over the next three or four years, but it certainly will be interesting.
Posted by: SonyaB | January 06, 2009 at 04:49 PM
This was an attempt to resurrect the concept behind Life magazine in a hipper, cooler wrapper. The wrapper frayed. The Reaper followed.
Posted by: tangerinedream | January 07, 2009 at 12:45 PM
JPG may not actually die so quickly. They made the announcement to close their doors and have since had a number of offers to be purchased. They may see a defibrillator quite soon.
Posted by: Ian | January 07, 2009 at 03:07 PM
PRINT WILL NOT DIE. It will just cease to exist in the form we know. I'll trot out the most clichéd example first: Radio did not die when TV took off. It lost its role as a storyteller and stuck with music programming. Now that, too, needs to change with the times.
Also, everyone once used bicycles to get around. Now they are mainly used by kids, messengers, and hobbyists. Horse and buggies found a new niche giving rides to preschoolers at the hay-bale maze at the county fair.
There will be a role for magazines in our culture--and I'm dying to find out what that will be. Maybe the Reaper can tell us. One day, your grandkids will think the monthly general-interest magazine sounds so quaint and alien when you beam them in on your hologram receiver and tell stories about writing these strange copywriting symbols on layout proofs till the wee hours.
Party on, Reaper. But can you tell us where we're all going?
Posted by: don't fear the reaper | January 07, 2009 at 08:16 PM
Forgive my confusion, Don't Fear, but are you saying that print won't die because it will change into something that's not print? Am I understanding correctly?
Or, is your point that the magazine format will be liberated from the limitations of paper and ink?
Posted by: Wayne | January 08, 2009 at 11:49 PM
Hey, Reaper: what do you call it when you have to give one back? Refund? :) Saw the following on a photography website earlier:
From: 8020 Media
We couldn't ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.
We're thrilled to say that because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home. We will be keeping the site up after all, and hope to have a final update in the next week or so on who the acquirer will be. Thank you for making all of this possible.
Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief
Posted by: Mike | January 12, 2009 at 01:54 PM
Simple Scrapbook's last issue is in April.
Posted by: candyclouston@comcast.net | January 22, 2009 at 06:43 PM
JPG was one of the most worthless and pointless magazines ever.
Posted by: Donna | January 24, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Ide rather read a magzine concept with good photography, about five good stories instead of reading a kazillion little stories.
Posted by: COWBOY | January 25, 2009 at 10:14 AM
http://jpgmag.com/
Don't feel bad if you occasionally have to give one back, Reaper. This "recession" isn't over yet. There's still plenty of fine dining out there.
;)
Posted by: Mike | May 20, 2009 at 02:34 PM