• Mediabistro.com, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 11:17 AM

You can launch a magazine these days without a collateral Web site, but that would be considered imprudent.  Modern magazines not only have Web sites, more and more they are getting the site up and running before the debut issue of the print magazine reaches readers.  It's an inexpensive way to establish a base, begin building a community of like-minded individuals, and get some feedback on what will and will not work in the book.  Mediabistro.com's piece, "Web First, Print Later," is a thoughtful take on the latest phenomenon in the magazine community; it quotes a number of executives on the upside of launching a Web presence right from the get-go.  "Paul Travaglino, publisher of the soon-to-be-launched Kitchen magazine, believes going online first offers several advantages.'There's a lot you can do online that you can't do in print,’ he says, citing sweepstakes, forums, feedback, interactivity, video, audio and slideshows. 'Or maybe you can't afford to launch in print. Going online allows you to build the brand out and access people who are interested. Once people see the brand it becomes easier to see what the interest is, and it’s easier to show investors what they're going in on. And some magazines, once they do an online launch, will find that a print edition is unnecessary.'"

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