Magazine Digitization is Seen to Save the Fading Industry

Admittedly, old magazines are fading away. Like the tabloids and broadsheets that once crowded living rooms, waiting lounges, lobbies, etc., printed magazines are disappearing. There’s no need to be too nostalgic about this matter. Let’s face the fact that the magazine industry started to decline even before this decade began and that magazine digitization is the only way seen to save the industry. Not everyone favors digitization, given the challenge associated with change. Let’s take a look at some institutions that are faced with the difficult process of digitization.

ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries – the largest division of American Library Association or ALA), C and FUSE (Canadian magazines focusing on arts, culture and politics), and Long Beach Public Library, all agree, in separate occasions and time, that digitization is one of the many solutions to easily share print media across institutions. To them, it builds the past for the present and future generations. The goal really is to preserve the current state of their materials, magazines and newspaper collections to be exact, and get it organized. Now the challenge is finding a digitization expert that can handle the complex designs associated usually with magazines and newspapers digitization.

To newspapers and magazines, technology is needed for digitization to progress. To clear the hurdles, there are companies that offer technologically-advanced services for media companies (including media monitoring companies, libraries, publications, and other related institutions) who need to convert books, magazines, and newspapers into structured and searchable text files without the need to invest in manpower, technology and architecture.

The comparison of magazine digitization to human evolution is fitting at the moment. We humans evolved to survive the worst situation and disasters the world has to offer. Now, if digitization is the only way for magazines not to go extinct, then we'll just have to go with the flow. Well, that’s progress and it’s inevitable.