I have been buying Writer’s Digest on and off for over 20 years, sometimes faithfully every month, sometimes only when a particular article caught my eye. I’m more in the latter mode now than the former. Recently the magazine underwent another design facelift and it’s frankly pretty impressive. I usually find most magazine makeovers to be a fairly mixed bag, but this new design is extremely clean, elegant and modern. They have found a really nice balance between white space, copy and overall layout.
Why am I writing about Writer’s Digest in a post titled “Technology good”? Because yesterday I bought, for the first time, a digital copy of the magazine. The current issue has their annual 101 Best Websites for Writers feature and I figured the digital edition would have clickable links to all of the various sites, which would be far more convenient for a relative butterfingers like me than having to type them in myself. And lo, the links are indeed clickable! On my 24″ monitor I can view the magazine at 100% without having to scroll all over to see the pages, which is nice. Plus I only paid the $5.99 US instead of the $8.99 CDN newsstand price. With the Canadian dollar near par, it’s a much better deal.
I approve of this magazine-as-PDF technology, even if it makes curling up in bed with the magazine a lot trickier.
And yeah, I know I’m way behind on the whole digital magazine thing. I didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until I was nine years old, either.
Technology good.