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Photography and Photoshop Magazines Obsolete

I remember walking around the airport while waiting for my plane to the Virgin Islands in the JFK Airport last June. To kill a little time, I decided to hit the stores to look for reading material to entertain me while in flight. Of course I was looking for magazines within the genre of photography or Photoshop. Thumbing through them, I wanted to find informative information that could improve my work. Great content was hard to find between all the ads. Then it hit me, photography and Photoshop magazines are obsolete.

To grow your knowledge in Photography or Adobe Photoshop, you have to move at a digital pace. Currently magazines in these genres aren’t keeping up with the online competition. Below is my breakdown of why and what is happening online that’s changing our culture.

Where The Current Magazines Lack Any Luster

Traditional Magazine Layout: You can easily figure out on your own, the limit of photos and text at the standard font size, that a magazine can fit on one page. Photography magazines have to limit the sizes of the photos within each page, not to create a large page count. It’s expensive to print magazines, so you have to balance your profit margins from your ads to pay for all the costs of creating a monthly edition.

Limited Tutorials: With page limits playing a key factor in the end result of the magazine, magazines that focus on Adobe Photoshop are limited too. Tutorials are shorter, offer less detail to each step, and only a few images are used as examples. Magazines like “Photoshop User” publish easier tutorials that have been around for years, which have very few steps, allowing the editor to stay within the boundaries of page cost.

Magazines vs Online Content

The writing is on the walls web, as more and more people turn to information and tutorials on the internet. Convenience is a big factor, finding new content directly from home. No need to find a retailer that actually stocks the magazines you like. Content is real-time, meaning information can quickly be posted on the web. No need to go to a layout department, reviewed by an editor and sent to print, then wait for the shipment to hit to retail shelves. That should take about a month.

Online tutorials have no boundaries. A tutorial can be 30+ pages long, containing detailed writing and tons of screenshots [of different sizes] used as examples.  Files can be made available online, so members can work along with the tutorial in the exact same manner. Magazines tried this in the past with a CD insert, but it increases publication costs, so you see less of it everyday.

Online content can easily be organized. You can save specific tutorials to your PC by saving the web page. Although you have to save each individual page, it’s a lot easier than saving every magazine you buy, and then thumbing through each one of them to remember where the tutorial was published.

Tuts+ vs Kelby Training Online Pricing Model

Free is always king, but we’re always willing to pay for something that’s “worth it”. An online market is available now for quality content that offers some free features and some paid benefits.

Tuts+: [Homepage] Probably the best business model on the internet, created by Envato. Tuts+ is the home of Photo.tuts+ [photography tutorials], PSD.tuts+ [Photoshop tutorials] and many other training sites within their network. It offers “free” and “paid member” benefits.

Tutorials are posted, that you can learn from for a short period of time for free, and then they’re archived. Once they’re archived, you’ll have to pay and become a member to view them. Within some of the tutorials, like PSDtuts+, the .PSD file is available for members to download, to see first hand how the final image came to fruition. Also brushes, textures, etc, can be made available for free or for members only.There are also “Exclusive Members Only” tutorials, which are impressive and worth the monthly fee. [Benefits page from Tuts+]

Anyone can write a tutorial too. If you’re savvy in your field and want to share some of your knowledge, you can write a tutorial. If Tuts+ likes it, they’ll publish it and give you $150. There goes the overhead of paying payroll for a team of content creators.

The best part of the Tuts+ network is the tiny cost of $9 a month, or $22 for 3 months. That’s the same cost of magazine and you get so much more!

Kelby Training Online: [Homepage] As a photographer, I love this website! Training is done with in depth videos that are broken down into chapters, allowing you to revisit specific portions of the video. This makes it easy to find information needed near the end of the video, without having to wait for the entire video to download to see it. The training videos are clean, in high resolution and can be downloaded by paid members. If you want to learn photography at a faster pace than college, Kelby Training is perfect for you. Keep in mind that this site really doesn’t have any “free” features. You can visit specific tutorials and watch the first 2 or 3 chapters for free [that are primarily introduction chapters], but the remaining portions of the video are for paid members only.

If you’re not a photographer and only want training on Adobe Photoshop, I would recommend Tuts+ over Kelby training. If you love photography, Kelby’s training is the best bang for the buck on the internet, and it’s great to have Photoshop tutorials added to your membership as a secondary option.

Becoming a member of Kelby Training isn’t cheap, but the value of training is worth it. Cost for membership is $20 a month or $200 a year.

Future Home For The "Magazine" - The Smithsonian

Exit Stage Left into the Museum

For me in my life now, the only time I decide to buy a magazine is when I’m at the airport. That’s no lie either. That will also change very soon, as internet access is being offered on many flights for a fee. A fee that I’ll be happy to pay for. When I’m sitting in the lobby of a hair salon or a waiting room for the dentist, I turn to my smart phone. If I was a heavy book reader like my parents, I’d own a Kindle. Some may disagree, some will swear that it’ll never happen. To those that feel that way, all I can say is, “You wanna make a bet? Put your money where your mouth is.” I’m guessing that 15-20 years from now, most magazines will be retired.

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