I am impressed with the start the HW have made towards a fully fledged digital version but there is still a resistance to linking out using anchor text to other sources and resources.
The BBC have realised (eventually) that linking out is essential and they [BBC] are taking user-generated content and citizen journalism seriously.
I wrote an article Paper versus Megabytes the future of printing over pixels and I had the article circulated to the industry (magazine) press.
Greenkeeper International
The Landscaper
Hort. Week
UK Landscape Today
Turf Professional
Turf Business
The Groundsman
The Golf Course
Greenkeeping
Golf Club management
Landscape + Amenity Product Update
Newspaper:-
The Times
Strangely, non of them wanted to run with it and I even received a message back from Trevor Ledger, who is the editor of The Golf Course via the press agent, accusing me of talking out of my backside.
It is interesting to note that The Golf Course has just switched to digital - at this stage I do not have readership figures for the magazine.
"The Golf Course announces expanding to publish free eZine version
In
response to demand and requests from readers, The Golf Course, a source
for news of the international golf trade, has responded by going
digital.
"While there is still room for traditional printed media" explained
editor Trevor Ledger from his Scottish base, "we have received a lot of
feedback requesting an online magazine. From here on in we will be
sending out an email newsletter every fortnight (two weeks) with news
snippets and stories from across the golf industry; the new Website has
now gone live and the full content will be available on there as a free
subscription."
Subscription to the eZine is free, and Ledge says fans of The Golf
Course need not worry, that it will still contain the easy-to-navigate
sections that cover news, developments, maintenance and management. To
subscribe, visit www.the-golfcourse.eu".
I think it is time to start being honest and for magazines, blogs and websites to work together.
I am getting the feeling that journalists in traditional print who are switching to digital are still very insular and are writing to impress their peers rather than delivery a message, news or information to the target audience.
Please, let us not send website and blog journalism the same way as garden TV. It should not be about ego and hierarchy but about professional personality and experience delivered to the client in a way that is non patronising but yet simple.
As far as traditional print versus digital is concerned - HW and others who publish blogs, internet sites, magazines and papers, might be interested to note that for the first time, Yellow Pages has declined from being the leading local advert delivery model.
The search engine has now (somewhat belatedly but inevitable in my opinion) become the tool of choice for consumers to search for a local service or a product. I can see this lead to a further drop in magazine and paper revenue too.
