Due to the economic importance of digital magazines, the Audit Bureau of Circulations
integrated the definition of this medium in its latest report (March 2011): a digital
magazine involves the distribution of a magazine content by electronic means; it may
be a replica (of the printable version) or a non-replica.
However, this definition is far from being updated. A digital magazine should not
be, in fact, a replica of the print magazine in PDF, as was common practice in recent
years. It should, rather, be a magazine that is, in essence, interactive and created from
scratch to a digital platform (Internet, mobile phones, private networks, iPad, or other
devices ).
As the print magazine, a digital magazine is distinguished by six key features: it
has a beginning, middle and end; it is edited and curated (has an editorial alignment, is
divided into sections previously established); it has an aesthetic treatment much more
appealing than a newspaper; it’s date-stamped (it has series of issues published in a
specific date, usually weekly, monthly or quarterly); its contents are permanent,
suffering only minimal corrections; it is periodic (created to have subsequent issues).
Following this, we can conclude that many publishers use the expression “digital
magazine” wrongly, just to characterize a site or the online presence of a print
magazine, even if they don´t have a beginning, a middle or an end or periodic issues.
Josh Gordon goes further and speaks of interactive digital magazines (2011: 9) to
rule out the simple PDF replicas. He lists three characteristics that distinguish them:
a) interactive digital magazines are designed to compete for the attention of
online readers, not print readers, so pages are formatted to be viewed on a
computer screen with larger type, contain “digital extras”, such as flash
animation, embedded video, etc.;
b) interactive digital magazines are designed for easy interaction between readers
and the magazine. For example, readers can share their thoughts, comments,
complete a survey, click to play content in the form of digital extras or click to
download additional content, register for membership, share the magazine on
social media, etc.;
c) interactive digital magazines contain ads that readers can interact with.
Thus, from the five most common types of digital magazines, i focus on the first
three regarding this article:
• digital magazines that are not based in the printed version;
• digital-only magazines;
• iPad, Android or iPhone apps of magazine editions;
• PDF replicas of print editions;
• applications for Kindle or Sony eReader.