

Subcompact Publishing - joshlong
http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/

======
cmod
Hello HN —

Super duper tl;dr:

\- Christensen's theories of industry disruption fit digital publishing like a
glove [1]

\- Marco's The Magazine is a pretty good 'subcompact' example [2]

This essay is the written + expanded version of a talk I gave at The Internet
Archive (Books in Browsers) last month:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGwM6hWbMY&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGwM6hWbMY&feature=youtu.be)

Watching the video or reading the essay both take about the same amount of
time, but the essay has much more information.

You can skip to my UI/UX deconstruction of The Magazine here:
[http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/#sub_thema...](http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/#sub_themagazine)

Or, skip to the 'Subcompact Manifesto' here:
[http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/#sub_manif...](http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/#sub_manifesto)

[1] Innovator's Dilema; Also: this Neiman Report:
[http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102798/Breakin...](http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102798/Breaking-
News.aspx)

[2] <http://the-magazine.org/>

~~~
debacle
Your tl;dr is a bunch of links. What is the one-sentence tl;dr, because after
reading the OP I didn't really see the point?

~~~
cmod
nelsonweiss does a good job up above.

------
nelsonweiss
Short sweet tl;dr

Online publishing nonsensically adopts many of the practices of offline
publishing.

It doesn't need to, and could benefit from adopting "Small issue sizes (3-7
articles / issue), Small file sizes, Digital-aware subscription prices, Fluid
publishing schedule[s], Scroll [instead of pagination], Clear navigation,
HTML(ish) [formatting], [and] Touching the open web [not just platforms]".

------
nelsonweiss
Okay- Question for you Cmod: Why do you think that keeping issues at all is a
good thing?

Issues is one of those throwbacks to physical publishing. When you have to
physically print and distribute, issues are a good thing... but online you can
just publish an article when it's ready.

You mentioned how you think "edge" is important, so I would guess one of your
arguments might be that a "publish on completion" stream is the exact opposite
of edge. However, couldn't you just create artificial edges? For instance,
showing the articles for the past 7 days?

~~~
cmod
Issues certainly create edges. They also allow for thematic grouping (which is
good for editorial guidance).

Mainly though, they limit the number of times a reader is pinged. I'm a big
advocate for grouping all notifications, not just 'content' — only notify me
if #_notifications > x. Issues can be a kind of inherent frequency limiter.

That said, they're absolutely not necessary and most online publishing
(rightly) has no concept of issues.

 _"However, couldn't you just create artificial edges? For instance, showing
the articles for the past 7 days?"_

Yes — and I think more apps should allow for this.

Facebook is a great example (IMO, but clearly not in the opinion of many
others) of doing just this — taking a near infinite stream of one-offs and
grouping them based on your Facebook use frequency / habits. Twitter's
(Summify) summary articles are another good implementation of this: _what
happened in my stream yesterday?_

~~~
nelsonweiss
Next question- what amount of money constitutes a digital aware subscription
price? What range? And how are you determining this price?

Second (though related), what is the place of advertising in this theoretical
subcompact publication?

------
jpatokal
I agree with basically everything in this article... except the paid
subscription model, which to me seems another instance of pointlessly aping
the print publishing world.

In the print world, you have to charge each reader because there's an actual
cost associated with producing each physical copy, but this is not the case
for digital products, where distribution is effectively free. And since free
crowds out paid, it's extremely difficult for a paid digital magazine to build
up a following. (Thought experiment: if this article itself had been published
behind a paywall, how many would have read it, and would it have ended up on
HN?)

Now, of course there is still a cost associated with actually creating quality
content. The key to success will be finding a way to pay for it without
charging readers and thus kneecapping distribution.

Too short, read more: [http://gyrovague.com/2012/06/28/why-the-web-will-gut-
paid-e-...](http://gyrovague.com/2012/06/28/why-the-web-will-gut-paid-e-books-
and-apps-and-why-free-can-pay-for-authors-and-publishers/)

------
thecosas
Great article. It would be neat to see what the backend for the Magazine looks
like and whether Marco Arment (or someone else) will make it easier to produce
something like The Magazine.

