My idea of fun is going to Borders and flipping through magazines that I would never buy. Now there is access to a truly global news stand. Power browsing can be taken to a whole new level with more and more print magazines going online.
In the world of print production technology, most magazines go to press in the form of a PDF document. On the Web, that same PDF can be uploaded into an online template so the pages can be flipped and read online. One of the largest sites magazines are being uploaded onto is Issuu.com. Once uploaded into the Issuu site, it can be read in their archive or the user can paste the magazine onto their own site.
A site that aggregates magazine PDFs and other sources of magazines is pdf-mags.com. This site has a heavy focus on design and style magazines that you will never see at Borders.
There are some magazines that have set up their own online system for readers like Soma. This site offers a deeper level of involvement for the reader by providing a search feature, downloading ability and advertiser info.
Michael Nott is the Creative Director at Parthenon Publishing.