Judis sees New York going bi-weekly as “the latest indication that high quality print magazines and newspapers are slowly but surely passing from the scene”:
Smaller specialized publications with niche audiences and advertisers have survived the transition to the web. So have smaller political publications that have always depended on sympathetic benefactors to make up their losses. Bigger general interest magazines like New York or Time will, if they survive, become more dependent on the kind of consumer features that have allowedU.S. News to limp along. But the danger here is that the kind of features or reporting for which they were known will become accessories the way they are in airline or fashion magazines. I worry even more about the big newspapers. Who will be around to fund investigative stories into local corruption, or who will have the reporters ready to report on a revolution in Jakarta that threatens to spread through Asia?
James Poniewozik looks on the bright side:
That same Times story noted that New York is not laying off staff; in fact, it will be hiring staff for the magazine’s already busy website. It will plow the savings from printing less often into digital publishing. As a magazine–a physical thing–New York may be cutting back. As a news organization, it is–for now at least–growing. Palpable? Maybe not. But at least potentially thrilling.
All this illustrates something we need to remember when we talk about the media business, its changes, and its (very real) problems paying for itself. The physical form of journalism is not the journalism itself.
Alexander Abad-Santos praises New York’s digital offerings:
The magazine’s spin-off sites Vulture, The Cut, and Grub Street are on fire. The company reports that their online audience was up over 40 percent this October, which translates to about 18 million monthly unique visitors. And they say that their investments will include a new blog focused on human behavior (titled “the Science of Us”), the Daily Intel blog beefing up its political coverage, and more manpower at Vulture and The Cut.
My thoughts here.
The Dish 