Talking About Magazines Is Good for the Soul

Just want to take a moment to say how much I need to thank everyone for the avalanche of feedback, emails, tweets, retweets, and blog mentions that I’ve received since I started doing more magazine/digital coverage here, in just the short few weeks I’ve been doing it. It’s funny that I removed all comments on this site just before I started writing stuff that people actually had a lot of things to comment on or add to, but as I hoped, it hasn’t stopped the feedback from coming, it’s just been delivered in a variety of places, and in a more direct way.

I’ll also point out that it’s because of this method I have of dealing with feedback that you end up getting a post like this one, with Craig’s responses to my previous post. How many people would have read his comments if they had just appeared in a comment thread, a day after the post went live, which is also probably after most people ended up reading the post in the first place.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been a letter reader in magazines, and have always felt like they’re a waste of space. But I do like the way Wired handles it, especially in its iPad edition (I haven’t seen a print copy in a while, so don’t know if they do it there too), which is to run excerpts, along with editorial comment. This is the kind of interaction I’d rather read: Seeing “condensed” feedback from the readership, and seeing how editors feel about it, in a tightly written paragraph.

Anyway, I digress, but again, thank for all the kind of words, and please keep on reading — the digital age of magazine design is just starting, and so there’s never been a more exciting time to follow and comment on all of this stuff.