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Techcrunch carries the news of the launch of Flip, a social networking site aimed at teen girls.
 It makes the (good) point that Conde Nast can't really be called a pure magazine publishing company any longer, as with its recently acquired Digg - clone Reddit, it now has user generated media and social networks alongside its portfolio of print magazines.
The majority of Flip is content created by users, called Flipbooks. It consists of customizable, rich media blog/journals and include text, photos, music and videos. Users can also customize their Flipbooks with stickers, templates and other decorations available on the site. Flip also has four content channels: My Life; Entertainment; Style; and The World. Each channel highlights user content and also has professional editorial, presumably grabbed from other Condé Nast publications.
One thing Flip doesn’t seem particularly concerned with at this time is security of its users. Unlike Piczo, which also caters to a young teen audience, Flip profiles are freely browsable and searchable. This allows the site to create more networks and generates extra page views, but it also allows predators to browse profiles of young teenage girls, which given Conde Nast's sensitivity to such issues, will be a priority to resolve.
And with the news this week that EMAP has acquired YoSpace (no Tom, you should have bought MySpace) it appears that print publishers are accepting that giving users a voice is preferable to not hearing from them at all.
Media Guardian today carries the (quite) incredible story that men's magazine Front has chosen to miss its January issue, citing "IT difficulties" as the cause. Ignoring for a minute the fact that hardly anyone will notice it missing (readership hasn't so much declined as f****d off), I have never heard of a title missing an issue like this before.
IT difficulties? Ah, I take it you mean you forgot to back up the issue then? Apparently not. An "office move" was to blame. Right....
It couldn't come at a worse time. The title, which has seen more owners than an S reg Volvo, has been rumoured to be struggling on the shelves- hit hard by the men's weeklies - and is bottom of the pile when it comes to advertiser choice in the male category. So the disappearance of that issue and the delay on the following issue can't be helping the stories it might be sold.
Still, they could always buy some new Macs with the proceeds.
 The “soft” launch of Future’s new technology portal this week – and why does soft evidently mean two years wait? – raises some interesting issues.
Teething troubles of course haunt all internet ventures, such as working with different browsers,setting the dimensions on your pages correctly, forgetting you actually publish the Microsoft Vista Magazine (check out the “Why no one wants Windows Vista” headline) etc. But putting those to one side, lets investigate the claim of “Technology News First”.
Bold claim that. Particularly in these blog driven , community crazy internet days. And it has been put to the toughest of tests with both the world’s biggest gadget show, CES, and Macworld happening simultaneously in the US this month.
Tech magazine publishers are notoriously pompous when it comes to news reporting. “Only WE are professional journalists!” they cry, hoping to stem the tide of 100 million plus blogs in roughly the same way King Canute tried to hold back the sea. So it should come as no surprise that Tech has absolutely no interaction with its readers whatsoever.
Which, I would humbly submit, is a mistake. Fully three hours before the Tech team (seven journalists and counting) got round to reporting Bill Gates speech, coverage had been on at least 20 technology blogs, the Guardian website and a multitude of other sources. Such is the nature of the net.
And they were even further behind Engadget’s coverage of the Steve Jobs keynote at Mac World. Provided as a live feed, the blog coverage beat a very carefully considered op-ed piece on Tech by about 270 minutes.
And there in a nutshell is the problem; print publishers think that it is news when THEY publish it, and not before. But on the net, deadlines are out of the window. And though quality of content remains a trump card for many in the magazine industry, in the world of news, first is everything.
Much comment this week on the annual round of ABC's for consumer magazines. In amongst all the puff and padding, some salient points. The Observer observes (!) that the now seemingly inexorable decline of the men's magazine market can be laid firmly at the door of digital magazines, with Dennis' Monkey posting a very impressive debut figure of 209,612. I'm not sure about that, but the fact that the much vaunted "lads weeklies" have dropped by 21% in their second year of operation must be causing a few sleepless nights at IPC Towers and EMAP.
In the land of gaming, Future claimed successes over smaller publishers - a feat akin to beating San Marino by the odd goal - while across the tech sector, there was a curious silence.As broker Numis puts it - 'The biggest casualty from internet usage among 15-24 year-olds has been print media." This area has been hardest hit by the Internet, packed as it is by the print publisher's arch nemesis - the early adopter. A number of publishing houses are starting to drop prices in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of red ink.
So, cyclical problems, or as The Observer so eloquently puts it, structural?
Over 20 per cent of 15-24 year-olds, and 10 per cent of older adults, read magazines less often since they first used the internet, according to media regulator Ofcom, and that trend is likely to accelerate as more households sign up for high-speed internet access - about 20 per cent now have broadband.
All the more reason therefore for more publishers to follow Conde Nast's lead and get busy online.
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