Writing for min online,
Steve Smith tackles the question of how magazine publishers should treat their websites. For so long, many sites were little more than thin marketing presences for their parent magazines, but things are clearly changing, Smith reports.
A great example:
People magazine, which recently moved its online staff to the same floor as the print side, has focused its website on breaking celebrity news. Smith quotes Time Inc. Interactive executive editor
Ned Desmond: "We thought the smartest thing to do was take this wasted asset, the
People staff's ability to break news, and make that the focus of the website." Very smart -- and a far cry from Time Inc.'s
failed Pathfinder initiative during the Internet's boom days.
