• by Erik Sass , March 20, 2007

Discover magazine is unveiling a dramatic new look for its Web site today. The editorial and artistic redesign aims to expand its online-only content and extend its multimedia delivery with more video, blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and photo galleries. The redesign's goal is to make navigation easier and more intuitive. Also, the new site gets a new name: discovermagazine.com.

To capitalize on the growing popularity of user-generated content, the magazine created a series of new features. For example, "Science In Two Minutes or Less" is a contest in which visitors contribute short video clips; they explain a complex or popular scientific concept to win a prize. Contestants must address a topic provided by the Web site. The first subject, string theory, will be judged by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, author of "The Elegant Universe." Winning submissions will be broadcast on the Web site.

"Our online traffic has more than doubled in the last year, so we're transitioning a successful site into one even better," says Bob Guccione Jr., the CEO and publisher of Discover, explaining the re-launch. According to Web editor Amos Kenigsberg, the site's monthly traffic now tops 640,000 unique visitors.

Although its Web site is booming, Discover's print operations are struggling.

In 2006, according to figures from the Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages fell 8.7% to 234 and rate-card revenue dipped 6.6% to $13.6 million. The Audit Bureau of Circulations reports that in the second half of 2006, subscriptions fell 18.7% compared to the second half of 2005, ending at 604,828.