Jessica Patterson

Time magazine is making headway into immersive augmented reality and virtual reality experiences this week, with the announcement of a new app and news that Academy and Emmy Award-winning talent is joining "The March" team. 

After years of shrinking budgets for training and cuts to personal development across the  magazine and news media industries, there are signs that companies are making training and education of staff a priority again. Last month, The New York Times announced it had open-sourced its data skills course for reporters, and made it accessible to all.

Last year, The Economist launched an essay contest for readers aged 16-25, in attempt to engage younger readers, that was so wildly successful, they're doing it again. 

Magazine media have long put energy and resources into efforts that are bigger than their brands, into socially and environmentally responsible events and campaigns. Companies are balancing making a profit with being responsible to the planet and the communities that they operate in.

For over 50 years, Rolling Stone has been iconic in its coverage of music and popular culture, political journalism and commentary. From the Beatles' Magical Mystery tour to Shawn Mendes, Rolling Stone has covered the greatest rockstars, the hottest celebrities, the biggest political stories. Called a 'counterculture bible' by The New York Times, the magazine has launched careers, defined what was cool, inspired a rock song, been embroiled in controversy, and over the last two years, found a new home with Penske Media Corporation. 

For publishers, AI-driven tools have largely been used for editorial purposes, to write articles on themes like sports scores, weather forecasts and real estate sales. For example, Reuters uses an AI-based tool called NewsTracer to sift through millions of tweets in real time, to flag potential news stories, for its journalists. UK-based Reach does something similar, using an AI-based tool called Krzana to monitor 60,000 online sources to alert journalists to breaking news, and Forbes has tested an AI-based tool to draft stories for contributors. Publishers have also leveraged artificial intelligence to power content recommendations, to edit homepages, and for translation.

About nine months after including SmartCodes across its portfolio, Meredith has ventured further into multimedia, by incorporating audio content into the array of opportunities and experiences its readers can access through its exclusive QR codes.

Earlier in May, Instagram launched a series of digital-only Insta-zines that aimed to help students around exam season, with mental health support and advice. The magazine, called #GramFam, was created with The Mix, a crisis service for youth, and CALM, charity Campaign Against Living Miserably. Previous editions went live in September 2018, in time for the first few weeks of university.

Dominik Grau, digital transformation expert, gave attendees a deep dive into building content strategies using algorithms and widgets that target audiences and boost commerce conversion rates, at MagNet, Magazines Canada's annual conference in Toronto April 24-25, 2019.

Niche magazines sat in the spotlight in a panel discussion at MagNet, Magazines Canada's annual conference for the magazine media community April 24-25 in Toronto, to discuss the trials and challenges they faced, and how they've overcome. Panellists gave insight into their own publications's issues and the solutions they've used to find success.