Some British publishers find more revenue in direct sale of archives than through iTunes

Some British magazine publishers find they make more money from selling access to their digital archives than they did via the Apple iTunes store. A story in Press Gazette quoted digital magazine specialist Exact Editions the revenue strategy.

“A large proportion of our partners’ magazines are earning more from institutional subscriptions than they are from app sales in iTunes. It is an important market, not to be neglected,” said managing director of Exact Editions Daryl Rayner.

The company scans archived editions into a searchable database and offers premium subscriptions for a fee to institutions, schools, corporations and universities around the world. Such access can cost a university up to £800 a year. Last month it launched digital archives for Opera magazine (over 800 issues since 1950) and Geographical (94 issues since 1935). Other titles it is working with include: Gramophone, The Literary Review, Hali, Prospect, Dazed & Confused, The Numismatist, When Saturday Comes, The World of Fine Wine and Resurgence.

Wonder how many mags remember to do this?

Magazines Canada has reminded its members that all magazines are required to deposit two copies of each new title or new edition with Library and Archives Canada under its Legal Deposit Program. The requirement has been in place since 1965 for serial publications. 

Maclean's soon to roll out digital archive of 108 years of publication

Maclean's magazine, this year celebrating 108 years of continuous publication, will be unveiling a digital archive of its issues going back to the first edition in October 1905. 

Until now, past issues of Maclean's have only been available in digital form going back to 1986. Anything before that meant plowing through a card catalogue and microfilm copies, if they exist. So, as the magazine says in a post, the bulk of its history is not available online to readers and researchers.

If all goes well, it says, the archive's so-called "back end" will be done by the end of this year and making a publicly available archive will happen starting in 2014. The work has been done with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and ProQuest will be making a PAO (periodical archives online) database of our past coverage. 

"It’s a rich collection: there are the historic covers, including some by Group of Seven members like A.J. Casson, Arthur Lismer and J.E.H. MacDonald, and a celebrated cast of contributors, including Margaret Atwood, Robert Service, Farley Mowat, David Suzuki, W.O. Mitchell, Ray Bradbury, Mordecai Richler, Bertrand Russell, and Lucy Maud Montgomery. That’s not to mention a veritable who’s who of Canadian journalists who’ve edited and filled our pages: Ralph Allen, Pierre Berton, Robert Fulford, McKenzie Porter, Peter C. Newman, Christina McCall, Barbara Moon, Peter Gzowski, Trent Frayne, June Callwood and Fred Bodsworth, to name a few."

The company (Rogers Publishing, successor to Maclean Hunter) is missing a few of the issues from the first few decades and later may call upon its readers to help locate them. 

Canadian Literature makes 50 years of back issues freely available

Canadian Literature, the quarterly journal published at the University of British Columbia, is making 40 more back issues openly available as pdf files. This adds to a much larger open access archive (http://canlit.ca)-- almost 50 years of content, going back to #1, the summer 1959 debut issue -- and the journal is going to add another year's worth to the archive each year.

"The open access PDF archive is made possible through funding from the University of British Columbia’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund." says the journal in a release. "Another of Canadian Literature’s educational open access projects, CanLit Guides (http://canlitguides.ca), takes advantage of this comprehensive online back issue archive. Currently in development, CanLit Guides is a modular online learning resource that introduces students to reading and writing at a university level."

The publication also maintains a website CanLit Poets which is an online poetry collection aimed at high school students. 

Canadian Literature can be purchased for $19.95 an issue or $56 for a 4-issue subscription.

NOW magazine puts up searchable archive of 1,560 issues dating back to 1981

April 5, 1984

Toronto's NOW magazine has released a completely searchable archive of every issue going back to the first, published almost 30 years ago, September 10, 1981. 

The leading alternative weekly magazine in Toronto, it started out in small offices above a shoe store on Danforth Avenue. Now it operates from its own building on Church Street and distributes 100,000 copies every Thursday from 2,300 racks and boxes across the GTA. Alice Klein, Editor/CEO said in a release:

"The new, searchable archives are a fast and fun way to dip a cup into Toronto's fascinating social, cultural and political legacy and in these strange, fast-paced times, we need access to the richness of our own past more than ever," said

Michael Hollett, Editor/Publisher said:

"Because the Archives will be searchable, we know people will have a few laughs as they take a trip down memory lane, (hopefully) remember a few concerts, the first Pride parade, the early years of TIFF – the memories are endless and the archives of NOW Magazine will take you back in time. Roughly 30 years, 52 weeks a year, 1,560 issues of NOW Magazine archived in one place – amazing!"

Google paper archives grow, with Halifax Gazette from 1753

Google has put a digitized version of the Halifax Gazette, June 2, 1753 edition online, the oldest newspaper in its growing archive. It has also put the complete archives of the granddaddy of alternative papers, the Village Voice, online, going back to 1955. Plus papers from around the world, including the Sydney Morning Herald, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, The Manila Standard and The Nation from Thailand.

Time magazine archives available back to 1923

Time magazine now has opened up its archives going back to 1923; you can find covers and stories for every issue in fully searchable form. The links are so sophisticated that you can follow a story week to week. (The cover shown is from 1978).