The fretting over the decline of the printed word is nothing new; the respective arrivals of radio, film, and television each prompted widespread concern that newspapers and magazines would soon be obsolete at worst or rare at best. But the internet differs from earlier threats to the ink-and-paper culture insomuch as that it promises to evolve the medium rather than eliminate it – and Zinio, a growing firm that offers digital magazines at low subscription rates, is doing its part to hasten the end of what will someday be remembered as the very odd practice of reading and writing our words on dead vegetable matter.
Zinio provides users with the ability to instantly download digital magazines to be read either online or off by way of any number of reader programs, thereby allowing subscribers to enjoy their favorite periodicals on their PC or PDA. Options abound, with Zinio offering quite a bit more variety than you’ll find at your average newsstand or even your above-average one; over 1,000 publications are available for download by the issue or by way of a subscription. As one might expect, the reduction of costs associated with actual printing and shipping allow for bargain rates, and special offers abound. Conveniently enough, Zinio also allows users to search the site’s entire database of available issues by keyword order to find particular articles on a given subject.
The company also offers a small selection of consumer books, but won’t be competing with Amazon and its Kindle reader anytime soon; only a couple dozen are available at the moment, with offerings limited mostly to travel guide. On the other hand, Zinio has partnered with textbook publishers to provide digital versions of their products at rates well below the expensive norm; a downloabable copy of Macroeconomics by Campbell McConnell, for instance, goes for a bit over 60 bucks, half of what a new copy costs over at Amazon.
As wonderful as all of this is for starving students and tree-huggers alike, there’s now another good reason to give Zinio a try: the Read Green Initiative (goreadgreen.com), a program organized by Zinio, offers first-time users a free one-year subscription to a magazine of their choice, with proceeds of any additional subscriptions purchased going towards the planting of trees, this being a welcome reversal for the printed word.
