SkyDrive, Complex team up for digital magazine distribution

June 04, 2013

Microsoft’s SkyDrive will host the latest digital issue of Complex magazine, in what might be an effective cost-saving solution for niche publications. Microsoft representatives also indicated that a similar partnership would be revealed on Thursday, with more of a pop-culture bent. The Complex partnership is good for the magazine’s June/July edition, and the content will remain on SkyDrive until the end of the month. The partnership marks a first-of-its-kind relationship between SkyDrive and a digital publisher, Microsoft said. Complex has broken its magazine into two digital files (using Microsoft Word) that are hosted in the cloud. Complex has also added some bonus content to the digital repository, including past covers. Complex Magazine An online version of a digital magazine isn’t news: virtually all publishers share content between online and print versions, if they have one. Neither is a digital edition, as PCWorld and other publications publish one of those as well. But hosting and bandwidth costs can pose a significant obstacle to some publishers, and Microsoft has taken on the cost by providing those services themselves. That might eventually work its way to larger publishers like the Chicago Sun-Times, which said Tuesday that it woud lay off its entire photography department in an effort to cut costs. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040744/skydrive-complex-team-up-for-digital-magazine-distribution.html#tk.rss_all