I am interested in the news that Canada's SWEEP! magazine is to do away with a print edition and will be published entirely online in future. It was the idea that the former publishers of the Scottish Curler toyed with at the end of last season.SWEEP! has decided to go down that road. The magazine's website here, says, "SWEEP! believes that it is time to embrace the future -- and for a niche market publication like ours, that means adopting a digital format. So SWEEP! is becoming paperless. We are becoming ... SWEEP! dMag."
"SWEEP! dMag will be viewed on your computer monitor. Pages will be seen by you as two-page spreads, and pages will turn from spread to spread in a similar fashion to a paper version. But that is where the appearance's similarity ends. Fewer columns. More white space. Bigger print. More sub-headings. More spectacular photography. Our pool of writers will be back ... and more writers added. SWEEP! will have more pages in most issues. In the paper world, SWEEP! was a 32-page product ... two 'signature sheets' on a web press. In the new-look SWEEP!, typically there will be about 50 pages. And SWEEP! will have more issues per season ... eight (8) for this season. Further, no more will readers have the arrival of their SWEEP! copy controlled by the vagaries of the postal system. In the digital world, everyone gets SWEEP! at exactly the same time worldwide."
I wish those involved with SWEEP! dMag every success. It sounds great. The question is whether subscribers will pay for an online magazine, at $11.95 per year, although this is considerably less than the printed version was last season. No postage costs, of course.
I wonder.
But today I want to thank all the Skip Cottage Curling blogallies out there! This blog was looked at more than a thousand times yesterday, a record! Thank you. And to my five 'Blog Supporters' on the right who are helping keep me on the road and able to attend events, and provide photographic coverage from them. My 'retirement' has been most enjoyable to date!
