[Web Informant] 17 March 2009, Custom publishing 2.0 with MagCloud

[David Strom]

Web Informant 17 March 2009, Custom publishing 2.0 with MagCloud

Not every Web service has to be completely an online operation. Take
as an example Netflix – when they started it wasn't really possible to
stream an entire DVD across the Internets and they developed a system
to mail DVDs to their customers. Now, of course, they have some very
innovative ways to "watch instantly" your videos, including to
Ethernet-connected Blu-Ray and Xbox players.

But the combination of on and offline components isn't widely
exploited by many businesses, either because they are so enamored by
Web 2.0 (or whatever we are calling it this week), or because they
lack the offline skill sets or institutional memories to be effective
in both camps.

Let's take a look at one service that does a great job in both worlds,
called MagCloud.com, which is sponsored by HP. As someone who once ran
the editorial operations of several computer magazines that have gone
by the wayside (no fault of my own in particular, at least so I like
to think), I welcome the effort.

It works this way. Let's say you want to produce a small number of
copies of a custom published magazine – say something more than a
sales brochure that has actual editorial content. You want to approach
this project with the same kind of quality that a regular printed
magazine would entail – full color printing, nice graphics and layout,
and mailed to potential readers. This is the idea behind their
service. You create your magazine just as you would with the usual
Adobe tools, upload the digital files to their service, along with the
mailing addresses of your readers. HP takes care of printing,
proofing, binding, polybagging and postage.

You can get an idea of what is involved by browsing their Web site and
seeing some of the magazines that are offered for sale there. I got a
copy of "Georgia Speaker" – a magazine that is published by the
Atlanta chapter of the National Speakers Association (an organization
that I am a member of). It was well put together and arrived in the
mail in a few days and cost about $5 all told.

What I like about MagCloud is that it combines the best attributes of
print-on-demand with online access for searchability, marketing and
awareness. The price is reasonable and you can set up any number of
custom-published pieces. Obviously, HP Is doing this to tout its
printing business, but why not?

When I first heard of MagCloud, I thought the service would email me
the PDF that I would then print myself. And I was pleasantly surprised
when the magazine arrived in my snail mail a few days later. Then I
realized the genius of this service. How much stuff do you get in the
mail that you actually look forward to these days? Other than
paychecks from my clients and my Netflix DVDs, not a heckuva lot. This
can be high impact just because it is something so retro that it
stands out.

Now, I don't know if MagCloud has a future, but certainly it can bring
some bright spots of hope to some of the 11,000 journalists who lost
their jobs last year (according to the Columbia Journalism Review).
While that is small change compared to the number of idled GM or US
Steel workers, it still means that there is a large talent pool to
produce custom-published zines. And if any of you do produce your own
custom magazines using the service, please let me know and I will post
links to them on my blog.