Concept to finished mag in a day and a half

In a day and a half, Derek Powazek created a one-off magazine called Strange Light about the red duststorm that swept eastern Australia. He blogs about how he created the finished product, complete with 54 gorgeous photos (cleared with the photographers) in less than two days. We read about it in Nieman Journalism Labs.

Quick turnarounds are not exactly new, with insta-books and special commemorative issues (for example, Michael Jackson's death). But usually those are repurposing and expanding existing, syndicated or archival content. The interesting thing about Powazek's mag is that it illustrates how digital production tools and small-batch printing can really cut the angle.

Of course Powazek has a vested interest since he's involved in MagCloud with Hewlett-Packard, the system used to produce this special issue. But it is still very cool and should set publishers to thinking about customized editorial products that could spin out of their organizations without increasing overheads. I imagine the thing that will slow these products down is the difficulties of getting the printed product distributed. But with digital and online delivery, even that becomes manageable.