Ladies' Home Journal now to be written almost entirely by its readers

In a surprising development, the venerable Ladies' Home Journal  (Meredith Corporation) will now be featuring reader-written content in almost every story in the magazine, starting with its March issue, which will also be substantially redesigned by Pentagram, the well-known New York design firm.

This is carrying to an extreme the trend of traditional magazines to connect to the demands of modern, younger readers who are not satisfied to have professionals curate, write and present journalism. Quoted in a post on Folio:, publisher Diane Malloy says

“At Meredith, we do a lot of research to stay in touch with our core consumers. What they’re thinking about, how they’re consuming their media; what we found throughout our research is that women inherently want to share and connect.They’re blogging, they’re online more often and they’re looking for their print to involve some of the same pillars they get online.”

Reader-contributors will be identified largely through Meredith's network of blogs and the contributors will be paid on a similar scale to staff writers (a significant departure from blogs like the Huffington Post, which pay their contributors with "exposure".)  Staffers won't lose their jobs; they will fact-check and work with reader-contributors on their stories.

“We will blend the authority of print and expertise of editors, with the authenticity of experience,” says Malloy. “All of our stories are going to be either done in first person, then overlaid with experts’ opinions, or vice versa.” 

Department of loyal readers: "This is me, in front of the pyramids, holding the magazine"

What would we do without loyal readers? Here is Vince Hancock of Hamilton, Ontario, holding up a copy of Downhome magazine in front of the pyramids in Egypt. It is one of the many reader photos regularly submitted to the popular title.

Guardian editor expects readers to provide more and more content

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger told the Changing Media Summit in Britain that it is "impossible to predict on what technology platform journalism will be delivered in five years' time or even a year."This, according to a story in the U.K Press Gazette.

Rusbridger has been an outspoken advocate of taking advantage of technology and opportunity, hence his company's launching of a series of very robust websites, plus a new monthly international magazine.

He predicted that readers will provide more and more content.

"We are grappling with this balance of what goes on to the website and what goes in the paper. A great part of that web[content] will be generated by users in time."

But he added: "The role of journalists in this multi-media age has not changed and that user-generated content will only be a compliment to their work.

"There is still a role for people to find things out. But to have people sat in a newsroom in Wapping or Farringdon Road thinking they know everything is barmy.

"The smart journalists are working out ways of using that [user generated content]."