If you haven’t already stumbled across Contents Magazine go check it out. Contents is a digital ‘magazine’ platform that releases issues in segments, a typical issue takes about eight weeks to appear on the site. The magazine focuses on “readers who create, edit, publish, analyze, and care for the contents of the internet.” A lot of the material is applicable to archivists, librarians, and those working in the digital humanities.
I’ve never been a huge physical magazine reader. I subscribe to Canada’s History and that’s the only magazine I read with any real consistency. But, I do spend a lot of time online reading digital material, much of which is the length of an average magazine article. It is interesting to see the branding of Contents as a digital magazine not as a group blog. Contents includes design and illustration staff that are more reminiscent of magazine production than blog creation and it does have a visual element that many blog lack, so perhaps it is aptly named.
Personally, I like the emphasis that Contents places on open access and accessibility. Most of the articles are the length of a longer blog post, include photos and are written in accessible language. Considering Contents focus on digital mediums and the content that we produce online, it will be interesting to see if the site transforms to reflect trends in digital publishing and reading.
The current issue’s Editor’s Note focuses on the idea of archives as an ancient idea that has very real applications and hurdles in a technologically inclined world. Considering the challenges of digital preservation that archivists face today the topic of issue No. 5 is very relevant. It should be interesting to see what the rest of the content in this issue ends up being.
What are your favourite digital publishing initiatives?