Golf World, which has been in print since 1947, will stop printing next week. They will instead go to an all digital publication with fifty issues a year, rather than the current thirty one print issues.
Sounds like the beginning of the end to me.
The Ann Arbor News, our local paper, went all digital in 2009, with similar promises—new strategic vision; same product but delivered differently; instant updates; increased functionality. Ann Arbor dot Com quickly became completely irrelevant and unread. By 2013, it had disappeared completely and was subsumed into another site, MLive. Based on the proliferation of ads on MLive, I’d guess that they’re making money, but no one I know takes that site seriously. Just the opposite, in fact. Their poorly written, badly edited stories are a running joke with my set. (There is a twice-weekly “Ann Arbor dot Com” print edition, but as with MLive, it is mostly treated as a joke).
I can’t help but fearing a similar future for Golf Digest.
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Golf Digest is half way there, the long form articles have all but disappeared, the equipment pieces are press releases. I’m in the DC area, and the same can be said of the Washington Post. The web site has more meat than the print, but that’s not saying a lot. Not much there that isn’t on Huffington Post or covered as well or better by a blogger.
In music, we know, a digital recording is just a free-be demo tape. Not worth the cost of distribution, unless it actually generates a job.
I hope Golf World will excel in digital publication, wishing Golf world all the best for the future.