JPG Magazine Selected as Webby Honoree
Posted by Christi Ginger on 8 April 2008 (8020 Publishing)
The 12th annual Webby Awards has seleted JPG Magazine as an Official Honoree in the Magazine category. The Webby awards honor excellence on the internet and this year the awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. We're thrilled that JPG Magazine was among the honorees and couldn't be more proud of recognition the JPG community has been receiving.
Mr. Magazine Selects Everywhere as a Notable Launch of 07
Posted by Christi Ginger on 8 April 2008 (8020 Publishing)
Samir Husni, known to most as Mr. Magazine, has included Everywhere Magazine in his list of the top 5 notable magazine launches of 2007. The 5 honorees were narrowed from an original list of 30 new magazine launches. Mr. Magazine briefly describes his criteria for these selections:
"The [choices] reflect my opinion and belief that these titles are innovative and have the potential to make an impact on the industry."
We are quite honored to be selected and want to again thank the Everywhere community for their contribution in the success of Everywhere Magazine. Thanks!
Newsweek Article on 8020 Publishing
Posted by Christi Ginger on 11 March 2008 (8020 Publishing)
Today, 8020 Publishing was the focus of the Newsweek article A Twist on the Traditional Magazine Model. The article focuses on the shift in media consumption towards online content and 8020's model of publishing community-generated content.
Contributors from both JPG and Everywhere were interviewed for the article, and their experiences help illustrate the continuing value of print publications. Published Everywhere contributor Sloan Schang relates his experience of having his travel writing published in Everywhere Issue 02:
"It's definitely different seeing something on the page and holding it and knowing that it was valued enough for it to go into print...My parents immediately wanted to know where they could go buy it."
Overall, it's a great piece on the 8020 model of community-powered magazines.
Mr. Magazine's 7 great magazine moments of 07
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 24 February 2008 (8020 Publishing)
Dr. Samir Husni, who most people know as Mr. Magazine, has included us in his list of 7 great magazine moments of 2007. We're part of a list that includes Portfolio Magazine, Time Magazine, Garden and Gun, Outside's Go, Men's Health Living, and Monocle... pretty good company if you ask us.
About us he says:
"The launch of Everywhere and the re-launch of JPG: Both magazines, published by 8020 Publishing, show that a partnership can exist between both technologies: paper and pixels. Just give to paper what is paper’s and to pixels what is pixel’s."
So thanks Mr. Magazine, we respect your opinion quite a bit and is great to hear you think we are on the right track.
8020 featured in the New York Times
Posted by Christi Ginger on 26 November 2007 (8020 Publishing)
This past weekend, the New York Times ran an article on 8020 Publishing. The feature focuses both on the aspects that make 8020 Publishing unique within the magazine industry and on our place within the field of user-generated online content. The article also has a great quote from Samir Husni:
"'You’re going to see more of this,' said Samir Husni, who is chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi and writes the well-known magazine business blog Mrmagazine.com. 'I don’t think it’s just about getting cheap content into a magazine. Seeing their own work in print makes people feel like part of a community.'"
Its a nice introduction to the 8020 story and is generating a lot of great discussion on the future of print media.
JPG Honored by Min Magazine
Posted by Christi Ginger on 14 November 2007 (8020 Publishing)
JPG was just selected as one of the Hottest Digital Launches of the past year by Min Magazine. 8020 Publishing was on hand to accept the award yesterday at Min's 21 Most Intriguing People Ceremony.
Min Magazine is a leading industry magazine that celebrates innovative digital and print media. We're thrilled to be recognized and want to again thank everyone in the JPG community.
Exhibition of JPG Fashion Photography
Posted by Christi Ginger on 22 October 2007 (8020 Publishing)
This week we're celebrating the success of our exhibition and silent auction of fashion photography, held at San Francisco's Space Gallery. The exhibition featured photography from the last issue of JPG Magazine and sale of the JPG prints raised over $1800 for the not-for-profit Gen Art Foundation.
A ton of people came out to admire the lovely photography and take part in JPG member Michael O'Neill's interactive photo project. Here are some shots of the hard-working 8020 staff:
photos by Michael O'Neill
8020 Wins Two Folio Magazine Awards
Posted by Christi Ginger on 24 September 2007 (8020 Publishing)
Last night at the Folio Magazine Awards Show, 8020 Publishing picked up two awards! The Folio Awards honor the best in editorial content and magazine design--sort of a Grammys for magazines.
JPG Magazine was selected as the Gold Winner for best magazine in the Consumer: Enthusiast Art Hobbies Crafts Etc. category. Jpgmag.com was honored as the Bronze Award Winner in the Best Online Community category.
This year a panel of 100 judges considered 3,000 entries from around the globe. There were some great magazines up for awards so we are really thrilled and honored to be selected.
Thanks to the great JPG community out there that makes this magazine so fantastic!
Happy Birthday Us!
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 23 June 2007 (8020 Publishing)
It's 8020 Publishing's 1 year birthday! When we started in June of 2006, we knew we had a lot ahead of us, but lot of stuff has happened in just one year:
We have seen the successful launch of JPG, which in just 7 months has reached a paid circulation of 15,000, 75,000 registered members, an average newsstand sell-through of 70% (which is twice the industry average) and 5 million page-views a month. But we are most proud of the incredible work that has come from the community: work we never expected, truly amazing work that is redefining what photography means, and may otherwise never have been published.
We have won the Circulation Innovation of the Year award and a gold award for audience development. This was a great coup for us, since it is recognition from within the industry that we really are revolutionizing publishing.
We are about to launch our second magazine, Everywhere, a travel title aimed at approachable, authentic experiences. We think this is going to be huge, building on the success of JPG and breaking down the barriers to entry in another publishing market.
We've grown: there are now 9 of us, enough for a baseball team and just the right size to make pint nights memorable.
And we have finally, officially launched the 8020 Publishing site. For the last year we have had our heads down working on JPG and Everywhere, but the time came for us to work on a more permanent home. Now we can show off the team, the magazines and talk about what we're up to and where we think the publishing industry is going.
So have a look around, meet the team, and check back soon to see where we go next.
Circulation Innovation of the Year Award
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 7 June 2007 (8020 Publishing)
As web people, we know that when people are passionate about communities, their collective voice brings huge amounts of attention and traffic to those sites. Some people look at this as a tactic, often under the umbrella term called viral marketing, but this is actually just a core part of what happens naturally in a healthy and engaged community.
So it was great to hear that we had won the Best Use of Viral Marketing award from the Circulation Innovation Awards this week. But we were especially pleased to hear that we had also won the overall Circulation Innovation of the Year Award, which recognizes innovation in audience development for magazines. It was a pretty nice surprise for us since we were the small guys up against some of the most established publishing companies in the business.
We think a modern publishing and media company has to embrace its audience and the web as central parts of how magazines get made, and this is a great recognition from within the industry that we really are revolutionizing the publishing industry.
So, thanks again to all of the community, these awards really reflect the work that they have all done in helping make JPG and 8020 Publishing great.
Derek's Departure
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 15 May 2007 (8020 Publishing)
The last few weeks at 8020 Publishing have been difficult for us all.
It became increasingly evident that long-standing, significant differences of opinion regarding the direction of 8020 Publishing were preventing us from moving forward. We really had hoped to resolve these issues with Derek and work together as a team. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t come to an agreement and parted ways though Derek remains a shareholder in 8020 Publishing.
We recognize Derek’s contributions to JPG Magazine, past and present, and wish him well in his future endeavors.
Update: There have been a lot of questions from the community today about us rewriting history and we think it is important to say that we have no intention of rewriting the history of JPG Magazine. When 8020 was created we felt a photography magazine was a perfect first title to start with. JPG Magazine existed before and was absolutely the inspiration for the new JPG magazine. Derek and the contributors behind the early issues are a critical part of who we are and the heritage of JPG magazine is not something to be erased or forgotten. The JPG magazine that Derek and Heather created will always be an inspiration to us and we are committed to the principles that they set out.
JPG Magazine 2.0 is Live!
Posted by Derek Powazek on 18 September 2006 (8020 Publishing)
Exactly two years ago today, JPG Magazine began with a simple mission to honor the amazing work coming out of the online photographic community. Today JPG has been reborn as 8020's first publication.
JPG is a community-first publication. That means the magazine is created by the community itself. An innovative website puts the audience in charge - readers turn into writers, viewers into creators. The community then helps select the best stuff. The result is a magazine that is always on the forefront of the newest trends and hottest topics in photography, brought to you by the people on the ground, doing the really cool shit.
But don't take our word for it. Check out the new JPG for yourself!
We Love the Smell of Print in the Morning
Posted by Derek Powazek on 15 August 2006 (8020 Publishing)
When we tell people what we're up to here at 8020, we often get one question: "Magazines?"
Yes, magazines. Actual print read-it-on-the-toilet magazines. Traditional paper arrive-in-your-mailbox magazines. We are going to publish truly awesome magazines.
Here at 8020 HQ, we're web critters. Collectively, we've got over 40 years experience building websites. In the good ol' days, when the web was new, it was fun to imagine a future full of screens and pixels and not a trace of paper to be found.
But something funny happened on the way to the all-digital future. Paper didn't go away. In fact, to those of use who live and breathe the web, paper became more interesting, not less. More exotic, emotional, and real.
Don't get us wrong, we know that the internet changed everything. But it was a mistake to think that just because this funky new medium was good at some things, that it would be good at everything.
Here at 8020, we're embracing each medium for what it's good at. The web is an unparalleled invention that allows far-flung people to find each other, have conversations, and sometimes, when you're very lucky, form communities. But it's ephemeral: Just try to find that cool website from last year, or even that interesting NY Times story from last week. The web self-mulches at an ever-increasing pace.
Print is difficult. It's cumbersome and expensive. Highly impractical. But it's also archival, beautiful, and emotive. Print can be intimate in a way the web never can. Print is part of real life. It's there with you in the cafe, the restaurant, the bathroom. You can lose yourself in a story in print more than you can on a screen.
Most of all, the internet has freed the printed page from having to be about data. Where do you go to find out what the weather is like in New York? It's hard to imagine a time when people would turn to the printed page for such information, but they did. Now, with an internet brimming with data, magazines are free to skip the data and focus on what they do best: communicate, entertain, and inspire.
The internet is not going to make magazines go away - it's going to make them better. And we're here to do our part to help push that along.
Why 8020?
Posted by Derek Powazek on 23 July 2006 (8020 Publishing)
After Paul and I decided to commit to this new publishing venture fulltime, we talked a lot about what to name the company. We both have notebooks full of Simpsons neologisms, clever misspellings, and obscure references. But we finally settled on 8020 Publishing. Why? First, a brief history lesson.
In 1906, philosopher Vilfredo Pareto observed that 20% of the Italian population owned 80% of the property. Almost 40 years later, Joseph Juran generalized the observation as the Pareto Principle: 80% of a result is caused by 20% of the cases. Juran went on to become a management guru in the 50s and his Pareto Principle became better known as the 80/20 Rule.
The ratio crops up all over: from economics to art to sociology. In business the 80/20 Rule is typically interpreted to mean: Figure out the 20% of your workforce that does all the "real work" and treat them like kings. The other 80%? Pink slips galore! Of course, that's not what we mean here at 8020 Publishing.
We chose to name our company after this magic ratio because we wanted to embrace the way communities form online. In our experience, to maintain a healthy online community, you need to maintain another 80/20 split: 80% readers (the silent majority in any community, sometimes called lurkers), and 20% writers (the vocal minority, the people who power the conversation).
That's not to say that the 80% aren't important - they are. Without them, there'd never be those 20% of writers. It's the balance that's important. Everyone gets to be treated like kings.
Smart people may quibble about the numbers. Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo has a great post about the ratio he's observed: 1/10/100. In his ratio, 1% create, 10% synthesize, and the rest just consume. We hope to do better, but the basic gist is the same: Don't fall victim to the feel-good (but impossible) idea of 100% participation. Instead, make sure that everyone knows they can participate, embrace the natural patterns that appear, and remember that it's the whole of the community, in all its diversity, that needs to be healthy.
We look forward to putting these theories (and many more) to the test.