For some former print titles, the switch to digital edition is a step into the unknown, is not always done for the right reasons, and is done with little imagination. For K9 Magazine, a print title from an overwhelmingly digital stable, it was like coming home. Ryan O’Meara explains why they ditched their flagship print magazine and what they hope to achieve from its digital rebirth.
I think we’ve done absolutely everything back to front in publishing. From day one, we did things the wrong way round, always have.
K9 Media, the publisher behind K9 Magazine and a portfolio of some 40+ digital properties (that’s the fancy term for websites so I have learned) was started back in 1999.
We were / are a digital media company. But in 2001, K9 Magazine was launched. I have never denied the fact that K9 Magazine was born of the result of advertisers telling us how much they “loved what we’re doing, we just don’t really have an online marketing strategy at present. Do you have any print media?”
It took us seven issues to get K9 Magazine right and we even had to go out and get additional investment to sustain the company after this hungry new inky addition ate all of our cash in a way that our digital children never did. When we did get the magazine right though, we really got it right. It grew fast. TV coverage, major, world-exclusive celebrity interviews, brand recognition, we made a magazine that I became very proud of. Despite this, I still couldn’t get as passionate about print as I was about pixels.