Interesting news from Crisis magazine (via Mark Shea). They have announced that come September they will be going to a Web-only format, expanding their presence online dramatically and giving it away for free.
For that reason, and since the writing is so clearly on the wall, we are making a move while we still control our own financial and apostolic destiny. Here it is: September will mark the final print edition of crisis Magazine. Beginning on September 1, crisis will move entirely online, in an expanded format. It will have the same features, reviews, and columns (in addition to several new items that we never had room for in the magazine). Furthermore, everything will be free; no more subscription costs.
As both a Crisis subscriber and a former Catholic magazine editor, I understand what’s motivating their decision.
As much as the Internet scratches the itch of instant gratification, I still prefer print for longer and more thoughtful articles.
Brian Saint-Paul, the editor, clearly lays out the increased expenses—notably radically increased postage costs. Just as devastating is the decreasing subscription rates. People just aren’t subscribing to Catholic magazines like they once did and those who do are skewed toward a much older demographic.
That was the great challenge at Catholic World Report: How do you keep the news fresh when it’s at the very least two weeks old by the time it arrives in your mailbox. Meanwhile, I will have read about it on Catholic World News the day it happened.
While Crisis wasn’t as subject to that problem as CWR is—since they’re not a news-reporting magazine—they still suffer from the delayed gratification effect. And that’s a shame because, as much as the Internet scratches the itch of instant gratification, I still prefer print for longer and more thoughtful articles. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m an old geezer, but I just prefer to have paper to hold in my hands when reading anything longer than 500 words or so.
Whither CWR?
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