Magazines starting to "get it"

Media Industry News features magazines who are starting to realize that they can't just throw their print content online and call it a day.

Old media are still having trouble adjusting to the reality of a new generation raised on the Web, notoriously attention-deficient and print averse. "Young readers approach our titles first online before they get to print," says Desmond. "We need to engage those readers. It's the key to the future in many respects. A lot of people are rallying to this way of looking at it at Time Inc."

Editors still need to face the harsh reality of interactivity and consumer empowerment, the fact that they are not the arbiters of hip anymore. At CondeNet's Cargomag.com, for instance, the online component for the new men's shopping magazine is using the Web to give readers much more authority than magazines ever have in the past, even to the point of satisfying specific reader requests for new stories and hunting down obscure goods. "It's turned into something much larger than just a service magazine," says Ariel Foxman, editor-in-chief. "It's turned into a really vibrant community that we are playing a really large role in."