Sometimes They Come Back Better…

Not all titles die for good.

A few years back, Digital Magazine News was the first publication to cover our little cottage industry. Quite frankly, I wasn’t a fan, but we ran a few ads because – well – it was the only game in town. Other media players in the industry were too unsure (uneducated?) about digital magazines to cover them properly, so for a time Digital Magazine News was the only media outlet to cover the space. They didn’t do a great job of it, mind you, but they tried during a time when no one else was.

In the past few years, thankfully, through webinars, tradeshows and third party research, the medium has found a critical mass of acceptance among most publishers – and even some (but not all) journalists. Around that same time, Digital Magazine News didn’t so much stop publishing as they seemed to just not publish another issue. It was a quiet death, I suppose.

A few months ago, Digital Magazine News announced it was coming back. Curiously, the publication (owned by digital magazine vendor QMags) didn’t come back in a digital magazine format, though. It came back as an e-mail newsletter, which probably says something, though I’m little uncertain of what.

At any rate, I just finished their newest issue and must confess – I like it. Made up of case studies and digital publishing news from the past several weeks, there’s a fair amount of good meat in there. The news section felt dated to someone who stays on top of these sorts of things, but the case studies provide gobs of data to those wondering about digital magazine metrics. The format still leaves a lot to be desired, but on content alone, I’d call it a decent comeback.