The Ocean Agency

In a recent post on Publishing Executive ,Rex Hammock dispels a few myths about blogs and magazines. Rex was both a magazine editor and blogger, so he actually knows what he’s talking about. Refreshing in it’s own right.

In any case, in the piece he stresses that blogs are actually the perfect compliment to magazines. Magazines generally come out once a month, and in his words:

“Blogs can break stories; magazines can explain stories. Magazines can survey and analyze issues; blogs can archive as much data as necessary to back up your analysis. A blog can fill in many gaps that a magazine schedule leaves wide open.”

The GQ story, “America’s 25 Douchiest Colleges” illustrates the ability for blogs and magazines to compliment each other. When I first read the story, I was taken aback. I sat in my chair and thought, “This sounds exactly like something that would be on Gawker.” But then, as I continued reading the story I reveled in reading snarky and sarcastic blog content in a polished and tangible format. There was something special about reading a Gawker like topic in GQ. Interestingly enough, the link to the GQ article was posted two days ago on Deadspin.

This got me thinking. We are a competitive culture, and we always assume that one technology will destroy the one preceding it. We love to watch innovation, but for us, innovation generally means that something inefficient has to die. As marketers we need to keep in mind that innovation works at differing paces based on the idea and the product. It is our job to stay ahead of trends, and discover what the masses will adopt in the future.

But, we can’t get carried away. People still read magazines and watch television. Hey, people even still read the newspaper. It is about integrating new technologies with existing platforms that really allows products to take off. Here at the Ocean Agency we are constantly impressed by the way that the social web can act as a home for an entire media campaign. So, follow GQ’s lead, and create something that works effectively across a variety of platforms.