PDF Journalism

It’s become common knowledge of late, that our traditional printed media, like newspapers and magazines are going to need to reinvent themselves to keep up with the massive shift of all things to the Internet. It’s not really that long ago that the Internet was little more than a place to send each other glittering, badly designed animations (for those people that still do, please take note: it’s dead, let it go) and, of course, porn.

The porn industry has really been at the forefront of using the Internet as a means of promoting itself and their understanding that whilst the obvious downfalls of the medium through things like piracy (held aloft by fear-mongering commercial giants from many industries), there is an opportunity to increase both business and awareness through the far-reaching tentacles of the World Wide Web. None have done this more effectively than the porn industry.

So it was great to find this little gem, early on a Saturday morning: pdf-mags.com. It’s a hub of some of the best PDF mags from around the world, with a focus on art and design.

I guess these are the ‘zines‘ of our time. Whilst I assume most of them have some kind of commercial backing and means of revenue, the PDF format is definitely something that can be used by anyone to get their message out into the world. It will be interesting to see how these are taken up by the Internet population at large though. I still find myself wanting to print out any lengthy piece of writing. It just feels right to hold it in your hands and to be able to walk away from the screen and digest things at your own pace. I think reading is a leisure activity in a way and I’m unsure if reading on-screen is conducive to that.

Either way, I’ll be digging through the vault of pdf-mags shortly. I just grabbed the latest copy of Kromag (above) and am looking forward to flicking (clicking?) through. Those Frenchies have a wonderful sense of design.