Revenue sharing magazine Digital Journal
gives up on print
Digital Journal, the Toronto-based web magazine which had until now published both a quarterly print edition and a daily website, has decided to quit print. "Our online readership just dwarfed the print magazine and we had to respond to that," editor-in-chief Chris Hogg told CITY-TV in an interview he and senior editor David Silverberg gave on July 5.
All evidence of the print magazine has disappeared from the website, including the company history.
Founded online in 1998, DigitalJournal.com evolved into a printed publication in 2001. It claims readership for the website of 906,000 pageviews per month from more than 426,000 unique visitors. Ads on the website sell for a flat US$2,000 a month. That's a far cry from the print magazine which has likely been, at best, moderate financial drag. The magazine had with an unaudited circulation of about 20,000 copies and a claimed readership of 84,000. It had a handsome and professional appearance that extends to its website and its media kit.
The magazine's emphasis is technology and lifestyle and it described its mission as delivering “the latest consumer digital lifestyle news to a highly-engaged readership comprised of men and women aged 18 to 49 across North America.”
The company is privately owned and based in Toronto, with a somewhat mysterious structure and management. There seem to be five key people, each having multiple masthead responsibilities. The Editorial Board consists of
• Christopher Hogg (Editor in Chief and Vice President Editorial Services)
• Alex Chumak (Vice-president and Associate Publisher)
• Janusz J. Uiberall (President and Group Publisher)
• David Silverberg (Senior Editor)
• Mike Drach (Senior Editor and Vice-President Content Management)
DigitalJournal.com is best known for revenue-sharing for bloggers who contribute to the site. DigitalJournal.com shares a portion of its advertising revenue with all active members. Scores are determined by level of activity on the website, combining news and video posts, comments and ranking other stories. Payment is through PayPal accounts, in U.S. dollars. While this seems an intriguing idea, the reality is somewhat disappointing. The most any blogger earns is about $350 and most probably make much less.
The website’s staff generates about 16 stories every day. The online contributors post up to 500 stories a day on the site, according to a story last year by CTV News.
All evidence of the print magazine has disappeared from the website, including the company history.
Founded online in 1998, DigitalJournal.com evolved into a printed publication in 2001. It claims readership for the website of 906,000 pageviews per month from more than 426,000 unique visitors. Ads on the website sell for a flat US$2,000 a month. That's a far cry from the print magazine which has likely been, at best, moderate financial drag. The magazine had with an unaudited circulation of about 20,000 copies and a claimed readership of 84,000. It had a handsome and professional appearance that extends to its website and its media kit.
The magazine's emphasis is technology and lifestyle and it described its mission as delivering “the latest consumer digital lifestyle news to a highly-engaged readership comprised of men and women aged 18 to 49 across North America.”
The company is privately owned and based in Toronto, with a somewhat mysterious structure and management. There seem to be five key people, each having multiple masthead responsibilities. The Editorial Board consists of
• Christopher Hogg (Editor in Chief and Vice President Editorial Services)
• Alex Chumak (Vice-president and Associate Publisher)
• Janusz J. Uiberall (President and Group Publisher)
• David Silverberg (Senior Editor)
• Mike Drach (Senior Editor and Vice-President Content Management)
DigitalJournal.com is best known for revenue-sharing for bloggers who contribute to the site. DigitalJournal.com shares a portion of its advertising revenue with all active members. Scores are determined by level of activity on the website, combining news and video posts, comments and ranking other stories. Payment is through PayPal accounts, in U.S. dollars. While this seems an intriguing idea, the reality is somewhat disappointing. The most any blogger earns is about $350 and most probably make much less.
The website’s staff generates about 16 stories every day. The online contributors post up to 500 stories a day on the site, according to a story last year by CTV News.
posted by D. B. Scott at
6:00 am
3 Comments:
"It had a handsome and professional appearance that extends to its website and its media kit."
Yeah, handsome to advertisers. This was a rag from the start, with no critical coverage just fawning, slobbering blowjobs of such fellatory extravagance that readers and advertisers declined to support it (the print edition). Now, apparently as a web-only critter, it has a shot at...what? Break even? Good luck. Dirty knees, very dirty knees.
I gave serious consideration to not posting your comment because of its unnecessarily scatalogical approach. But then I decided this was one of the prices you pay to allow reasonable, thoughtful anonymous comments -- once in a while somebody abuses it.
Plus it's funny.
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