Friday, September 28, 2012

Guest lecture 14 - Oct 2 (10-12) - Hans Althin

.
Time and place: Tuesday October 2 at 10-12 in lecture hall M3.

Title: "Learn from the past when building for the future"
Guest lecturer: Hans Althin, Business Development Director at Aller Media AB

Talk: As all media companies, Aller media - the dominant player in the weekly/magazine business in Sweden with its 150 years long history of success - needs to adopt to the rapidly changing business environment. The question is how to adopt using historical strengths for future success?

About: Hans Althin started his career as marketer in large Swedish and international companies mainly in the fast moving consumer goods area. During a period of 14 years with business titles such as marketing manager and international brand director Hans had the privilege to follow some major brands and their relationship with its consumers. This has given him profound insights about the great value of strong brands. After 10 years as the head of a media agency Hans also gained insights of the advertiser’s perspective of the media market and how they valued any contacts with their consumers. In 2010 Hans was appointed Business Development Director at Aller Media responsible for all business development as well as for digital initiatives.
.

Do use the companion blog

.
Some people probably know about cool or useful magazine-related projects or webpages. Do take the opportunity to use the companion blog to post blog posts about stuff that could be of interest to others who take the course.

You all got invitation around two weeks ago (Sept 14) but only a minority have accepted them and become contributors who can publish on the blog.

An example is the student who wrote about the scenario methodology work that Shell has done in the initial essay (when the course started). That is an example of something that could be really useful for thinking about the future in the project groups that will soon be formed.
.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

New seminar topics (Mo Oct 1)

.
There might be some overlap with previously formulated topics - the same ideas can pop up again but in a slightly different form and from a slightly different angle. In fact, some of the most popular ideas from last week make an appearance again - you have a second chance to choose them. Do note that only topics that someone actually work on in the two seminars will make it to the shortlist of candidates for project groups. Your choice to work on a particular topic during the seminar is also a nomination of that topic!

Do note that these topics are only to be seen as starting points - you can develop, change and bend them in the direction you think is most interesting.




1. Upping the revenue from digital channels
We have heard that going from print to digital is like changing dollars (print advertising revenue) to cents (digital advertising revenue). How publishers change digital cents into dimes (10¢) or quarters (25¢)? What are people willing to pay for? How much advertising compared to editorial content are people willing to put up with if advertising has to take up the slack from absent revenue from consumers? Are there other incomes to be made in digital channels? Can magazines have sponsors (like old American TV shows)? Is it possible to charge people (a little) for forwarding or showing their friends what to read?

2. The future of paid digital content
Some newspapers (Financial Times, New York Times) and news services (Bloomberg) successfully sells their digital content to readers. What can be learned from these "market leaders"? Who pays today and what are they prepared to pay for? What are the implications for tomorrow? Is it/will it be possible to charge (more) per article, per issue or for a digital subscription?

3. How Apple stumbled
Kristina S M talked about Apple's and Amazon's "ecosystems" combining technologies and business models to satisfy user needs and the consumer quest convenience. Earlier speakers have expressed discontent with the monopolistic dominance of Apple's magazine and publishing platforms (iPad, Apple Store etc.) and the subsequent shift in power towards Apple and away from content (magazine) publishers. Deconstruct the Apple (and/or Amazon) digital ecosystem and imagine and describe the ascent of a (future) competitor to Apple and its role for the future of magazines.

4. The future of reliability and accountability
If there is 1) less money in print and in magazines in general and 2) more (free amateur-generated) content than ever on the Internet, that seems to be bad news for the future of journalists. But what are the limits of amateur, user-generated, crowd-sourced media? Can amateurs (collectively?) perform investigative journalism or will the slow demise of print and magazines also have negative consequences for freedom of expression, transparency, accountability and democracy? What is the the future of reliability and truthfulness when Internet sources regularly publish information (too) quickly that is wrong or false.

5. The future of content/in-depth, lean-back reading
Kristina S M talked about "breaking news" moving from magazines to the web (e.g. the latest news about gadgets, computer games etc.), while other kinds of stories and other kinds of reading are better suited to magazines; in-depth, lean-back, slow-pace analysis or attractive spreads (images, fonts, design). What content will (still) be found in (paper/digital) magazines? What experiences (kinds of reading) will we still look for in magazines in the future (perhaps in relation to our daily and weekly rhythms and/or life situation)? What are the different futures for different kinds of magazines/content?

6. Slow reading, deep reading
Is there space for a protest movement against sped-up, cut-up content vying for our attention on the Internet and in digital media? The slow food movement was started 25 years ago. If there now is a more general slow movement (slow money, slow parenting, slow traveling, slow fashion, slow science), is there not also space for slow reading (= deep reading, reflections and deep understanding?)? Would not magazines (and books) have a privileged position in a slow media movement - forming as a protest against the acceleration of news and the disruption of focus and attention. A daily ritual of magazine reading as a detox from the hurried pace of life in the 21st century?

7. The future of subscriptions
Magazine are sold and financed in a variety of different ways, but subscription numbers slowly decline every year. But exactly why do subscriptions decline - and could that change? What is the future of subscriptions, both on paper and in digital channels?

8. A future without publishers?
What if magazines (or long texts) will survive or even thrive in the future, but magazine publishers won't? What if there is less money in publishing, but still enough for journalists (but not large corporations) to get by? By all means read Shirky's text on the collapse of complex business models again. With readers being able to choose magazines from all over the world, perhaps we'll move to a winner-takes-it-all situation with bigger but fewer global or regional publishers? If 80% of the attention (time, money) goes to 20% of the magazines, will these figures be even more skewed (90/10%) in the future?

9. Journalist-reader synergies
Will specific journalists (like a favorite of mine - Michael Lewis) market themselves to increase their recognition and get a fan base of people who are willing to put up money to support the journalist (crowdsource/donations)? People would thus follow journalists, rather than topics or specific magazines. Or perhaps a journalist publishes an article and follows up comments and leads from his many and cooperative reader-fans? Journalist-author Gillmor describes just such a process in his book "We the media: Grassroots journalism by the people for the people". Can readers be included in the process of creating (the) articles (they want to read)?

10. The economy of user-generated content
It's hard for journalists and magazines to compete with "free", i.e. the price point of hobby bloggers (who might be dedicated experts in their narrow fields). But what is the "currency" that gets this army of content providers to write new texts for free - since it isn't money? What motivates non-salaried content providers to provide content day in and day out? Could this be the key to understanding the future of magazines and the future of texts on the Internet? Do non-salaried content providers eventually "burn out", or is it a sustainable model for producing content?


11. The editor-as-king
The problem with an audience of one is that everyone has to be his or her own editor! Is there not a huge value in having a specialist with in-depth knowledge about an area that produces and chooses  stuff you didn't even know you were interested in? What is the future of editors and the editorial function in a world that is moving towards digital channels and the chaotic structure (non-structure?) of the web? Authentic student quote: "Sometimes it is nice to have someone collect the articles and the information for you".

12. The editor-as-scavenger
...or could an editor become the title of someone who just sifts through all the free material out there on the Internet to whip together a "magazine" from a mix of webpages, articles and blog posts? Instead of hiring authors who create original content, why not hire "editors" who scavenges the Internet in search for interesting material?

13. Tabloid supplements
Paper isn't dead - Kristina S M told us that evening tabloid supplements ("magazines") earn the (Swedish) evening newspaper a sh*tload of money and are printed at a rate of more than one/day. What is the future of magazines in the form of (paper) supplements?

14. Non-text magazines
Do magazines of the future have to mean static paper or text-based reading on a computer screen? How about "video magazines" (see crane.tv) with short 3-minute videos introducing people, shops, trends etc. Would it be possible to develop video magazines in fields such as economy or politics? Perhaps the videos link to further (text) material? Could it be possible to create "podcast/audio magazines"?

15. A magazine for all senses
Three senses can be stimulated by paper, but not by digital media (computer, tablet or smartphone screens); taste, smell and touch. It is also possible to distribute (small) physical objects in a paper magazine. How could extravagant magazines capitalize on this with samples of materials and fabrics (fashion magazines), smell or taste (cooking magazines), small in deodorant ads, seeds (garden magazines) or a joint (High times)?

16. Losing our collective memory
A certain number of copies of magazines and books must be sent to a few select libraries (like the Royal Library) according to Swedish law for archival purposes. What will happen to our archives and libraries when we switch from print to digital channels? Are we loosing our collective memory? What will future generations be able to know about our time and our lives? What does the law state and what strategies do university libraries adopt to save the present on behalf of the future?

17. Social recommendations
Would it be possible to create a magazine that dynamically polls different people so that you get to read what your friends seem to be reading at the moment, what famous people read right now (starlets or members of the Swedish academy), the most popular articles right now, the fastest rising articles etc.? Think of different recommendation systems (Amazon: "people who like this book has also bought the following books:").

18. Event-magazines
What if there is no economy in doing magazines for their own sake, but magazines are rather produced as means to reach other ends such as to get people to go to a concert, an art installation/exhibition or some kind of event or conference?

19. The future of collecting
What is the future of collecting and collections? Authentic student quote: "I used to collect my past PC gamer magazines, I have over ten years' worth of magazines and sometimes it was fun to go back and read some old articles again". What need does collecting (must have all magazines!) satisfy and what is the future of collecting? A must-do for a group formed around this topic is to interview collectors. And what about scrapbooking, and tearing out an article from a magazine to save it? Why do we do those things and how can we continue to fulfill the same needs when magazines go digital?

20 Hybrid magazines
Is there a space for paper magazines with digital features/multimedia/augmented reality content that works together with a smartphone (QR codes, RFID chips etc.)? 

21. E-reader magazines
Kristina S M reminded us that e-readers (Amazon, Sony etc.) are a viable alternative to tablets and have many advantages (print quality, costs, battery, environmental impact etc.). So what are the challenges and possibilities for a future of digital magazines based on an e-reader platform?

22. Usability issues
An in-depth examination of usability issues in print and different digital channels (tablets, e-readers, web). Portability, reliability, batteries, sunlight, image/font quality, searchability, "commentability" etc.

23. Magazines for avatars
Many tens and perhaps even hundreds of millions of people play online games (World of Warcraft etc.). Is there a niche for publishing magazines for avatars in the games? See for example Ludlow and Wallace's "The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse".


-----------------------

Popular topics during the previous seminar (but which no group chose to work with last week and thus not on the shortlist for candidates for project group yet):

24. Magazines and identity
We subscribe to and read magazines not just for the content, but also as identity markers. I'm the kind of person who reads X, I'm the kind of person who have magazines X, Y and Z on my coffee table (to impress, so that people can appreciate my exquisite taste, to indicate topics I like to discuss etc.). And it's not just the covers, it's also the contents; I'm the kind of person who is updated on futuristic implications of technology (because I read Wired magazine) or about this autumn's fashion (because I read Elle magazine) or about the next version of iPad (because I read Macworld). Magazines say something about who you are - or about who you want to be. How can this function be incorporated into tablet and digital channels?

·      25. An audience of one. 
Nifty apps like Pocket, Instapaper, Flipboard in combination with services like Reddit, Buzzfeed, discussion forums and social media platforms make it possible to earmark and later integrate and present texts that come from a variety of different sources into a nicely formatted, advertisement-free experience on your smartphone. Is the future of the magazine an infinitely personalized and customized magazine that is different for each (brands and magazine titles are replaced by My Magazine)? What are the implications for…XXX. Or could a publisher potentially have all the information about user/reader behavior and be able to customize and sell a magazine to you and the masses? 

·      26. The changing function of magazines
Ulrika Facht suggested that media can have different functions; information vs amusement & distraction and basic use (daily routines) vs additional use (individual choices). This resulted in four different functions; “Coverage”, “Relaxation”, “Entertainment” and “Specialization”. What is the function of (different) magazines? How has and how will digitization change the functions of texts in general and magazines/magazine texts in particular?



So-so in popularity during the previous seminar

27. Free magazines (content marketing/sponsor magazines)
Content marketing (magazines issues by non-media companies, "customer magazines" etc.) is the future (Olle Lidbom), but Kerstin Neld preferred the term "sponsor magazines". Part advertising (also in terms of the editorial content) and free of charge. High quality pictures and stories, to be picked up on trains and airplanes or given away together with a newspaper, or sent home because your address is in some database and you have been identified as belonging to a specific (perhaps narrow) target group.

28. The limits of advertising
Are there limits where the possibilities of advertising on digital platforms in order to target even smaller niches or customize messages to an audience of one (you) becomes distasteful or disturbing to readers? Is the border where "useful" become "creepy" and where being catered to and being stalked is crossed? Are there signs of a "revolt", and what is the future of advertising in a world where increasing numbers of people want to opt out of being surveilled and sold to as people get more and more suspicion and reluctant to share information about themselves.

·      29. The future of long texts (“long form”). 
Magazines articles can be more and can go deeper than newspaper articles. But perhaps these texts won’t be packaged inside magazines, but rather consumed in some other form/format in the future? Good articles come from writers, not from magazines! Therefore in the future…

·      30. Reading patterns of the future
Physical magazines can form strong bonds with their readers; readers can wait for, long for, read (perhaps from cover to cover), cherish and save physical magazines. But digital magazines are for the most part downloaded, read (perhaps) and erased. Or even if not erased, for the most part invisible to yourself and to others. So what are the “reader habits beyond reading” in the future? What about serendipity and the editorial function? What about reading front-to-back and page-by-page or leafing through and reading randomly and spontaneously? What about picking up and leafing through an old issues (from you collection of print magazines)? Authentic student quote: "reading older magazines are a fantastic way to look back at how the world has changed over time".

·      31. The future of social editing
Olle Lidbom described how texts are being written and edited not for fitting into a newspaper or a magazine, but for being shared on social media platforms. Editing texts for being shared on Facebook to drive traffic in order to… (please fill in the blank). Would it be possible to read articles for free but in some way micro-charge when people share stuff instead?
.

Seminar 3 instructions (Mon Oct 1)



.
Our next seminar will be held on Monday afternoon. Here are the instructions for how to prepare for that seminar:
Correction: the seminar is naturally Monday before lunch, as can be easily seen by having a look at the schedule.

1) Read through all the 31 (!) magainze- and future-related topics in the blog post directly following this blog post. I harvested these topics from your essays and from our guest lectures. As I am abroad right now and kind of busy, I did not have the time to fix things up further (for example spending more time putting these proposals up a "logical" order, writing better descriptions etc.).

2) "VOTE" HERE for your four favorite topics. These are the topics you could imagine yourself working with during the project phase, or, that you at least would like another group to work with during the project phase. Your vote is a vote on interesting topics - not a pledge of yours as to what you want/will work on during the project phase. NOTE: perhaps I was better at formulating certain topics than others - but your task is to see through and look beyond these short descriptions and imagine what these topics could be developed into!

3) NOTE: We all meet in the seminar room D34 for initial information. Please be on time as we will divide you into seminar groups as quickly as possible after we start! Late arrivals will have fewer options! Do note that we have to squeeze together as the seminar room only has 48 seats!
.

Offer from Pontus Jeppson (IDG)

.
Pontus Jeppson gave a guest lecture in the course two weeks ago. He promised to get back with an offer to students who wanted to try a subscription to Computer Sweden (CS).

Since CS is written in Swedish, I cut and paste his message below:

----------------


Vårt studenterbjudande är att man kan testa CS under 3 månader för 99 kronor. Då ingår iPad-utgåvan och alla andra digitala tjänster också. Man anmäler sig på computersweden.se/student




Med vänlig hälsning,
Pontus Jeppsson

Mobilchef
IDG
.

Guest lecture 13 - Oct 2 (8-10) - Åsa Moberg & Mohammad Ahmadi Achachlouei


.
Time and place: Tuesday October 2, 8-10 in lecture hall M3

Title: "Future magazines - environmental impacts?"
Guest lecturer: Åsa Moberg, Assistant Professor in Environmental Strategies Research focusing on Sustainable Communication in Media & Mohammad Ahmadi Achachlouei, Ph.D. student in Environmental Strategies Research

Talk: What are the environmental impacts of current and future magazines? This will be discussed and illustrated by a case study of the printed and tablet versions of a Swedish interior design magazine. 

About: Åsa Moberg is a researcher trying to assess the environmental impacts of media and communication solutions. Most of her research is performed at CESC - Center for Sustainable Communications at KTH.

Mohammad Ahmadi Achachlouei conducted research on environmental impacts of both the printed and the tablet version of the Swedish magazine "Sköna Hem". Energy and environmental assessment of electronic distribution of media over the Internet and mobile networks are also part of his research interests.

Literature: 
Boguski, T. (2010). Life cycle carbon footprint of the National Geographic magazine". The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol.15, No.7, pp.635-643.
Note: Available in Bilda.
.

Schedule change - extra seminar Oct 8

.
As I mentioned at yesterday's lecture, I have schedules one more - the 24th - activity in the start-up phase of the course and that is a seminar that will also be the kick-off for the project groups.

After next week's "brainstorming" seminar (Monday Oct 1) you will get to express your wishes about which project group you want to join (see earlier blog post) and you will then be divide into groups.

The following Monday (Oct 8) we will have an extra (4th) seminar where you will get to know which projects group you will join and where you will work do a "systems mapping" exercise according to instructions you will get at the introduction to the seminar (please arrive on time!).

Since the time slot I proposed yesterday (10-12) collided with a compulsory final presentation in a another course that eight or so students takes, and since it is important that as many of you come as possible, I decided to move this extra seminar to the 8-10 time slot (sorry). So, the extra seminar will happen:

Time: Monday Oct 8 at 8-10
Place: Hall M33 (the only lecture hall available on the whole campus)

Time edit has been updated accordingly.

/Daniel

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Project group formation

.
I have written a long-ish blog post about the upcoming Future of Media group formation process on my personal academic blog; "How should student project groups be put together?".

Scroll to the last part of the blog post if you just want the basic facts. Read the whole text if you also want to know the reasons for now allowing students to choose who to work with freely this year.
.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Guest lecture 12 - Sept 28 (13-15) - Anna Swartling


.
Time and place: Friday September 28, 13-15 in lecture hall B2.

Title: "Project TEAM work"
Guest: Anna Swartling, Usability architect at Scania CV AB

Talk: Successful project depend on a well functioning project team. But what does that mean in practice? At this lecture, we will examine and discuss these issues together. We will primarily focus on team work, leadership issues, communication and conflict management.

Comment (from Daniel): This is a lecture that has nothing to do with magazines, but all the more to do with creating successful project groups (and thereby successful projects) during the project phase. This is a lecture where everyone should listen up and pay close attention to what Anna says. You fail to do so at your own risk as this might increase the chance that your project group won't pan out the way you want - and with detrimental effects on your satisfaction about your project, about the course, and perhaps also about your grade. Do remember that everyone in a project groups gets the same grade - so being able to "debug" any problems in the project group can be vital both to your wellbeing and to your resulting grade from the course. Furthermore do note that KTH uses the whole spectrum of the available grade scale - you are in no way "guaranteed" to receive A's or B's or indeed even C's or D's just because you manage to hand in something (rather than nothing) at the end of the term.

About: Anna Swartling is currently working at Scania, one of the premier truck and bus companies in the world. She has a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from KTH. She has long experience of team work and leadership from a variety of different positions and businesses, including KTH school projects, team manager, project manager for computer systems development projects as well as being an actor and a director in theater productions, chairman of several boards and research projects.
.
Literature: Read Scott Kim's text "Interdisciplinary cooperation" which is accessible in Bilda (Administrative/Literature/120928 Kim.pdf). Although the text specifically treats the difficulties of computer scientists cooperating with graphic designers, the lessons are applicable far beyond this specific case.
.

Lecture 11 - Sept 26 (13-15) - Daniel Pargman

.

Time and place: Wednesday September 26, 13-15 in lecture hall D3

Title: "Beyond scarcity and abundance"
Lecturer: Daniel Pargman

Comment: This lecture replaces a cancelled guest lecture. I can't say that I was hoping for a lecture to be cancelled, but I was waiting for it and will step in and replace it with a lecture of my own, as well as some timely information about the upcoming group formation process (next week) as well as some administrative information about the project phase and the schedule for the rest of the term.

Talk: This year it is not enough to explore the future only in terms of conservatively extrapolating from the present (e.g. predicting a future that is much like today except a little bit more so in terms of technology, economy/business models and habits/user behavior). Some of the best and most interesting project results have been accomplished when groups have dared to posit some more fundamental, radical, disruptive "non-linear" change in terms of technology, economy/business models and habits/user behavior (or law, or world events, or...). I will exemplify and also challenge you to go beyond a "safe", "predictable" future in your project groups. 

About: Dr Daniel Pargman has been responsible for the course "Future of Media" during eight out of 
ten years since it's inception in 2003. The course has for the most part found its form but he still experiments with parts of the course where there is still room for improvement. 
.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Buy DN världen - out on Monday!

.
On October 10, Pia Skagermark will give a guest lecture in our course. Pia is the head of the foreign correspondents at Dagens Nyheter (DN) and also editor-in-chief of DN Världen [DN World], DN's monthly magazine.

Pia wants you to prepare for her lecture by reading the latest issue of DN Världen, #9/2012 (October). It will be published tomorrow, Monday Sept 24.

Please buy it at Pressbyrån or elsewhere (39 SEK), or, ask someone you know who subscribes to DN to give it to you (subscribers get it for free together with their daily newspaper).


"DN Världen is a 66-page magazine featuring stories and photos from around the world. DN Världen is a magazine with more foreign material that what fits in the daily Dagens Nyheter, and with a different pace and longer stories. The magazine is also an opportunity to show off more pictures from our amazing photographers. DN Världen has in-depth and longer stories where pictures plays an important role."
.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Applications to the executive group

.
I'm abroad and it seems I have some problems with my mail; I can get and read mail, but I can't send any.

The reason I write this blog post is because some students have sent me applications to the executive group, but I can't answer and confirm that I have gotten your mail. Worse, at least one student has gotten an error message:

>Warning: message still undelivered after 4 hours
>Will keep trying until message is 5 days old
 

Please don't worry, I do get your mail. The deadline for applying is today (Friday), but if your mail gets delivered tomorrow (when I'm back in Sweden), that is ok too.

/Daniel

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Seminar topics

.
1) Free magazines (content marketing/sponsor magazines)
Content marketing (magazines issues by non-media companies, "customer magazines" etc.) is the future (Olle Lidbom), but Kerstin Neld preferred the term "sponsor magazines". Part advertising (also in terms of the editorial content) and free of charge. High quality pictures and stories, to be picked up on trains and airplanes or given away together with a newspaper, or sent home because your address is in some database and you have been identified as belonging to a target group.

2) The future of journalism (and journalists)
With so much free content available on the Internet, how is it possible to "protect good journalism", quality articles (content), and uphold journalistic standards? Will current developments make many journalists redundant? Will journaists be outcompeted (outbid) by unpaid amateurs (blogs) and technological innovations (Pocket, Instapaper, Flipboard etc.) that “de-commoditize” texts and great (and not-so-great) content? Will journalists go from stable jobs and freelancing to having to be jack-of-all-trades with multiple income streams.

3) Children's and youths' reading habits/relationship to magazines
What is the relationship to physical (and digital) magazines of those that are, say, a decade younger than you are? What is the state of comics and childrens' magazines (Donald Duck, Kamratposten) today? How do they engage and interact with their readers? What can be discerned about the future by talking to the people who produce today's youth-oriented magazines and those who will be your age a decade from now?

4) Pros and cons of analog and digital magazines/content
Many people talk about the feeling of luxury when buying a physical magazine (including aesthetic and sensory aspects); of quality paper, of beautiful layout and interesting typography. What stands to be lost, what can be gained when we leave paper behind? How can negative aspects be minimized (or incorporated in digital products) and positive aspects maximized?

5) The future of paper magazines
Many students prefer paper to digital magazines (for aesthetic, sensory, health, overview etc. reasons; strained eyes, the smell of a new magazine, “sometimes it is very relaxing to take a break from the world of buttons, screens and displays”). So what is the future of paper magazines? Niche luxury product for the rich? Given away for free in the subway? Independently produced local hobby projects (think Composite K and beyond – anyone can do a magazine today!)? Other?

6) The future of micro-segments
Olle Lidbom described a movement to smaller and smaller segments = more niched and “concentrated” target groups = higher price for advertising (despite a smaller audience). Producing a magazine is a way to find/define a group (surfers, people who care about gardening, parents, hard rockers etc.). What is the future of magazines in an age when niches (interests, audiences) are becoming smaller and more specialized? What is the role of paper and digital channels in this process and what are the implications for the future?

7) Business models for monetizing leechers
The big challenge; how can magazines “squeeze” money out of all the (digital) “leechers” who want to read for free without paying? What constitutes "value" to people? How much are people willing to pay for content/magazines on paper or for digital content/channels? Who is willing to pay (how much) and who isn't? What do we know already today and what are the trends and implications for the future of magazines? Are there clear difference between genres (womens' vs mens' magazines, gardening vs home improvement vs cooking vs ...)? If so, why and what does this mean (for the future)?

8) Magazines and identity
We subscribe to and read magazines not just for the content, but also as identity markers. I'm the kind of person who reads X, I'm the kind of person who have magazines X, Y and Z on my coffee table (to impress, so that people can appreciate my exquisite taste, to indicate topics I like to discuss etc.). And it's not just the covers, it's also the contents; I'm the kind of person who is updated on futuristic implications of technology (because I read Wired magazine) or about this autumn's fashion (because I read Elle magazine) or about the next version of iPad (because I read Macworld). Magazines say something about who you are. How can this function be incorporated into tablet and digital channels?

9) The future of interactive dynamic advertising
Digital magazines can encompass interactive, dynamic content; hyperlinks and clickable ads, audio or video clips. Anders Malmsten mentioned several ways that advertising could be developed on digital platforms. Perhaps advertisements in your magazines from last year could be changed retroactively, or a company could by time slots for ads in magazines (whole-page ads being displayed only between 7-9 in the morning, or only before the concert but not after)?
.
10) The limits of advertising
Are there limits where the possibilities of advertising on digital platforms in order to target even smaller niches or customize messages to an audience of one (you) becomes distasteful or disturbing to readers? Is the border where "useful" become "creepy" and where being catered to and being stalked is crossed? Are there signs of a "revolt", and what is the future of advertising in a world where increasing numbers of people want to opt out of being surveilled and sold to?

·      11) The future of reading 
Deep reading of longer, in-depth articles on particular subjects is replaced by browsing a zillion headlines to keep track of breaking news in your areas of interests and following up the browsing with reading a selected few texts. While these behaviors to some extent are an effect of previous changes in technology and business models, what are the implications of such new behaviors on technology, revenue and business models? (This question can be repeated for all topics relating to behavior below!)

·      12) The future of reading is discussions! 
The relative importance of learning about a topic through reading “defining texts” decreases and the activity of discussing and debating topics increases. The text (a result of a journalist’s craftwork) itself is not the end point but just the beginning; consuming facts is replaced by discussions and debate with knowledgeable people. Magazines are replaced by a multitude of peoples’ voices (democracy) and expert rule (meritocracy).

·      13) The future of periodicity. 
Magazines on paper have been published between every week (entertainment, politics, current news) to every quarter (professional magazines). What happens to periodicity, will we have constant (?) updates on digital platforms (like we have with news today). How do the demands on magazines and on the timeliness and updatedness of the content change when magazines go digital?

·      14) The future of trade magazines/professional journals 
We have concentrated on broader target groups, but what is the future of better researched, more focused (tighter target group), better selected and more specialized texts in the professional magazines in the future?

·      15) The future of long texts (“long form”). 
Magazines articles can be more and can go deeper than newspaper articles. But perhaps these texts won’t be packaged inside magazines, but rather consumed in some other form/format in the future? Good articles come from writers, not from magazines! Therefore in the future…

·      16) An audience of one. 
Nifty apps like Pocket, Instapaper, Flipboard in combination with services like Reddit, Buzzfeed, discussion forums and social media platforms make it possible to earmark and later integrate and present texts that come from a variety of different sources into a nicely formatted, advertisement-free experience on your smartphone. Is the future of the magazine an infinitely personalized and customized magazine that is different for each (brands and magazine titles are replaced by My Magazine)? What are the implications for…

·      17) Collaborative blogs
Is the future of magazines collaborative blogs (like Anna Troberg suggested)? What can be learned from ajour.se, bokhora.se, kulturbloggen.com, terranova.blogs.com and other collaborative blogs? Can they be monetized? How?

·      18) The function of long text (“long form”) in the future. 
Magazines articles can be more and can go deeper than newspaper articles and they can make you feel revitalized, focused, inspired and even smarter. What is the future of the function of long, in-depth texts in the future? Can they be transferred to digital channels?

·      19) Reading patterns of the future
Physical magazines can form strong bonds with their readers; readers can wait for, long for, read (perhaps from cover to cover), cherish and save physical magazines. But digital magazines are for the most part downloaded, read (perhaps) and erased. Or even if not erased, for the most part invisible to yourself and to others. So what are the “reader habits beyond reading” in the future? What about serendipity and the editorial function?

·      20) The future of magazine distribution. 
Distributions of paper magazines is a bottleneck and a large part of the edition comes back in the form of returns.  Can the distributions chain be digital, the magazine available in a newsstand (but digital) and the content be loaded (temporarily?) onto a reader?

·      21) The future of magazines is Spotify! 
What would a Spotified solution for magazines look like?

·      22) The future of social editing
Olle Lidbom described how texts are being written and edited not for fitting into a newspaper or a magazine, but for being shared on social media platforms. Editing texts for being shared on Facebook to drive traffic in order to… (please fill in the blank).

·      23) The future of radically new revenue sources
Perhaps the magazine publisher will have to find totally new sources of revenue; create events (meet the journalists), pop-up stores in shopping malls (Teen Vogue), apps (“The closet”, Teen Vogue), appology (an anthology-in-an-app with carefully selected texts from an archive spanning decades of great writing in The New Yorker). These examples all come from Olle Lidboms’s lecture.

·      24) The changing function of magazines
Ulrika Facht suggested that media can have different functions; information vs amusement & distraction and basic use (daily routines) vs additional use (individual choices). This resulted in four different functions; “Coverage”, “Relaxation”, “Entertainment” and “Specialization”. What is the function of (different) magazines? How has and how will digitization change the functions of texts in general and magazines/magazine texts in particular?
.

Seminar 2 instructions (Mon Sept 24)


.
Our next seminar will be held on Monday afternoon. Here are the instructions for how to prepare for that seminar:

1) Read through all the 24 magainze- and future-related topics in the blog post directly following this blog post. I harvested these topics from your essays and from our guest lectures. As I am abroad right now and kind of busy, I did not have the time to fix things up further (for example spending more time putting these proposals up a "logical" order, writing better descriptions etc.).

2) "VOTE" HERE for your three favorite topics. These are the topics you could imagine yourself working with during the project phase, or, that you at least would like another group to work with during the project phase. Your vote is a vote on interesting topics - not a pledge of yours as to what you want/will work on during the project phase. NOTE: perhaps I was better at formulating certain topics than others - but your task is to see through and look beyond these short descriptions and imagine what these topics could be developed into!

3a). Preferably: You are inspired by the 24 topics, but you realize that we have missed an excellent topic/suggestion that should have been in this list. Write a short text about this topic (50-150 words) and bring it on paper to the seminar on Monday. You can use bullets to make you idea/topic more clear. Don't forget to write your name on the paper!

3b) Otherwise: If you can't think of a new topic, take one of the topics and "develop" or specify it further. Take the topic one step further ("to the next level") and bring it on paper (50-150 words) to the seminar on Thursday. Don't forget to write your name on the paper!

4) NOTE: We all meet in the seminar room Q33 for initial information. Please be on time as we will divide you into seminar groups as quickly as possible after we start! Late arrivals will have fewer options!
.