Blogs in print so you don't have to go online

"In the past, you read Duzhe; now you read Blogs"

It's another magazine made up largely of online content. And appropriately enough, it's called Blog (博客).

Or rather, Middle-school students reading and writing: Blog edition, yet another attempt by an established magazine to capitalize on the wealth of free content available on blogs and forums. Its tagline, "A must-read publication of choice selections for Chinese youth," may be stretching things a bit, but other promo copy, like "No need to go online every day" and the image caption at left, seems about right.

It's actually a fairly clever publishing scheme: content is largely reader-provided. Any middle-school student can fill out a reader survey card for a chance to be a certified "Special Editor" of Blog magazine (50 individuals chosen per issue), and readers get compensated for recommending interesting blog posts. The magazine can publish whatever it wants, and compensation-wise, it need only print a notice urging authors to initiate contact.

Unfortunately, for this reader in particular, it's kind of a disappointment. I've already read many of the articles online. I don't know what that says about the magazine, though - does it have incredible taste? Or does this finally prove that my cultural appreciation is only junior-high level?