British Journal of Photography goes monthly

The British Journal of Photography has relaunched this week, returning to being a monthly publication after 146 as a weekly one.

The new monthly magazine is a very different beast, however. Rather than compete with online news, it seeks to complement it, making use of the print format for what it does best.

In an explanatory post, editor Simon Bainbridge writes:

“We believe that print magazines have a positive future, but somewhere along the line publishers have lost sense of what makes them so appealing, and in doing so they’ve given too much ground to the internet. Why do something in print that you can do equally well on the web?

“So, when we began thinking about what we could deliver as a monthly, we decided to play to the strengths of print. While many magazines are cutting costs and chasing readers that now have an allegedly shorter attention span, we are investing, rewarding them with a redesigned magazine that uses higher quality paper, has superior repro and delivers more depth.”

This is a fascinating move by the magazine and certainly an excellent route to follow. I particularly like seeing the phrase “play to the strengths of print” in there, because it shows the mag will offer content that you simply can’t find on the internet.

It’s a further sign that there’s a thriving future for print as a medium for depth, analysis and quality. Breaking news can stay on the web, where it has found its new home.

Over at today’s Daily Telegraph, there’s a great little photo slideshow of Journals from the archives, as well as a sneak peak into the pages of the new edition.