Don't Stay Glued to the Past

In 2010, cash-strapped Paste Magazine had an enormous decision to make. With ad sales flagging because of economic recession, the magazine, which started as a quarterly publication in 2002, could either follow its current distribution model into eventual bankruptcy, or it could radically change things up and hope to save the business. Fortunately, they went with option two.

And so, on August 31, Paste went entirely digital, completely cutting out the printed form altogether and thereby saving the farm (for now, at least.) It seems to be working well, and a digital format seems a natural fit for a publication that covers pop culture exclusively. For example, one thing Paste was known well for was its music sampler CDs packaged with the print issues. Well now, with a little web magic, presto! You've got music downloads.

Perhaps the best example of Paste's successful embrace of the "hybrid" model is its new mPlayer, now in beta. It's great because it's got a fullscreen layout like a magazine page with big, bright photos and text, but with the added bonus of embedded content. Again, this is huge for a culture publication - music samples and even videos are there right on the same page, without taking you away from the article. For example, here's a recent Clap Your Hands Say Yeah feature. It's got cool little touches, too, like if you hit the 'next' button on the media player at the top, it automatically takes you to the artist article corresponding to the song that's playing. That's thoughtful integration of new and old-fashioned media.