Get ready to say goodbye to a staple of the black print community - that is if you haven't already. This morning the New York Times is reporting that JET magazine will cease it's print publication starting in June, in favor of moving strictly online. Linda Johnson Rice, Chairwoman of Johnson publishing, told the Times:
"Almost 63 years ago, my father, John Johnson, named the publication Jet because, as he said in the first issue, 'In the world today, everything is moving faster. There is more news and far less time to read it,' " Ms. Rice said. "He could not have spoken truer words. We are not saying goodbye to Jet, we are embracing the future as my father did in 1951."
The digital move shouldn't surprise many, if any readers of the publication. Although JET's redesign a couple of years ago did somewhat reignite interest in the digest-size mag, it's print schedule had already been reduced from a weekly edition to every three weeks. Now there will only be an annual "Best of JET" print issue. An interesting caveat of JET's upcoming online-only editions, though, is that the digital content will be available through the website, of course, but also through a paid subscription app. It will be interesting to see just how many of JET's 700,000 print circulation, which made it the third-largest in terms of African American circulation behind Ebony and Essence, will convert to the paid online option.
Desirée Rogers, Chief Executive of Johnson Publishing who joined the company in 2010 and is credited with revamping both Ebony and JET, says the digital repositioning of the pub makes a lot of sense, particularly in terms of engaging younger readers because "African-Americans skew higher than the rest of the population in getting their news and information from mobile devices."
Still, it is sad to see a pioneering publication that lined many of our grandparents' and great grandparents' coffee tables disappear - at least in a physical sense.
What do you think about JET's move online? Will you subscribe to their paid app when it's available?
Original Post By: http://ift.tt/1qe9ur8
Source : http://ift.tt/1qe9ur8
No comments:
Post a Comment