Yesterday saw the launch of a new online magazine iGizmo. This is a magazine in the traditional sense of the word in that it is presented as an electronic view with pages to turn just like the real thing. Of course being online allows it to do other neat things like embed videos and link to websites – both of which iGizmo makes good use of.
This seems to be the latest thing as I have been invited to “subscribe” to several online mags in the last few weeks. These include the aforementioned iGizmo (gadgets) GP Mag (motor sport) and idiomag (music). The latter is interesting in that it (allegedly) tailors its content to your musical tastes. You give it the name of three artists you like (or point it at your musical profile on, say, Last.fm) and it then tailors the output.
In general I like this advance in publishing options and it brings with it a couple of clear advantages over print magazines: 1) they are more regularly updated, or contain more up-to-date information and 2) they are (generally) free. Of course the downside is that you cannot (easily) read them on the train as they need a laptop and an internet connection. The question is whether they provide any information that cannot be obtained from a traditional website with a good RSS feed.