What is a magazine?

What makes a magazine a magazine? Bo Sacks, president of the Precision Media Group, told the Independent Magazine Advisory Group’s sixth annual meeting in Boulder, Colorado this week that a magazine has the following properties. (Thanks to Tony Silber of Folio: for reporting on them.)

1. It’s metered. It’s paginated. It has a beginning, middle and end.
2. It’s edited, or curated.
3. It’s designed.
4. It’s date-stamped.
5. It’s permanent. Once created, it can’t be changed.
6. It’s periodic. It has a calendar or rhythm. It has a series of issues.

That number 5 is questionable; what about digital magazine sites that change and allow comment and reader-generated content? But it is interesting that most of the points on the list are agnostic about ink on paper -- a magazine doesn't have to be printed.