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Hi all,

I have created a new magazine with ExpressionEngine related content, called exp:magazine.

You can download it here: http://nordic-ee-users.com/index.php/blog/comments/expmagazine-a-new-magazine-for-the-community

This first issue has content from my Nordic EE Uses site, but for the next issue (that is planned to go out as fast as possible) I would love some fresh content.

So if you have news, reviews, tutorials or opinions that you would allow exp:magazine to publish, you get a free ad in the magazine!

It does not have to be fresh content - even though that would be awesome - but can be content you already published on your own site, that the community could benefit from reading. We all miss out on at lot of content, either because we don’t have the time to read it all, or because we don’t know about it.

My hope is that the magazine can publish the best of the EE web, so we all can read it when we have the time.

So please go check the first issue out, and get back to me with new content, criticism or ideas for content.

And remember, if you supply content to the mag, you get a free ad!

Cheers,
Thomas

Wow that’s pretty excellent Thomas well done.

My only complaint is the text content in “newspaper/magazine” 3 column style which makes it frustrating to read on a screen, and even worse on a phone. It means when you have got to the end of a column you have to scroll back up to continue reading.

Awesome! I can’t wait for future issues.  How do you plan to broadcast that when another issue is available?

@bluedreamer: Thank you for your response. I had great doubts about what was right, and I ended up with three columns because that worked on my iPad, and it’s how Macworld Magazine, .net magazine and others are formatted on Zinio. However, in Zinio Reader you have the option of reading the text in a separate window, where it’s shown in one column.

I would like to get some more feedback on this, before I commit to a two-column layout, but I did try throwing a 2-column test together. So please download that, and compare it to the 3-column one, and let me know everybody!

2-column test here: http://nordic-ee-users.com/exp_magazine/2-column-test.pdf
3-column version here: http://nordic-ee-users.com/exp_magazine/exp_magazine_issue_1_jan_2012.pdf

@jconner: Thanks man! I plan to announce new issues on Twitter under the #eecms hashtag, and I plan to make new issues available on a friday, so it can be mentioned in EllisLabs FRUP Friday Round-Up newsletter.

I don’t know if it will be a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly thing, it all depends on wether you all will contribute content, or I’ll have to write it all myself. In that case, it will be monthly for sure 😊

But until we get into a schedule, I’ll just post new issues when I have 6-8 pages of content I think. But I do encourage you all to get in touch, if you would like to write something for the mag, or you have content we can re-publish.

Tommy - 2 columns is a bit easier on a phone, maybe a good compromise?

It’s a pity the .pdf format doesn’t support responsive layouts 😊

Yeah it really is! I will consider 2 columns, but since other magazines that are done digital use 3, because this gives a more flexible and nicer layout, and since there perhaps aren’t that many readers, who really want to read it on a phone, I may stick with 3.

The main input I’ve had on reading 3 columns on smaller screens is, that you can enlarge the text more when the columns are narrow (3 columns) than you can when they’re wider. People seem to like this, even if it means they have to scroll to the top one more time per page, than with two columns.

But I will ask for more input in the next issue, where the Editorial page will be in two columns and the rest in 3, that way we can hopefully get at bit more input.

I do appreciate your input very much, and thank you all for your interest and for your enthusiasm on this project. Do let me know if you have content for the mag, either something you already published, or new stuff!

It seems that a better solution to mobile readers would be publishing that great content via a responsive website rather than a PDF, no?

I second Nick’s thought that is should be a responsive website.  Another benefit of it being a website is that google can crawl it.  I’ll keep watching this, looks like a great product and idea.

Thank you for your input. I will need to put in some work to do a responsive site, as that is one area I have not had time to pursue at all. However there are at least two great articles about it, so I will see if I can get the time to do something about it later on.

Another thing that might help mobile readers, is if the mag was also published in eBook format? I have gotten some questions about that, so if anyone knows about solutions, that will convert an InDesign file to eBook (that are not too expensive, as I’m on a “retired salary” 😊 do let me know!

Ahh ... there is actually an EPUB export option built-in to InDesign! I’ll test this and get back to you, if it works well…

Just a short update, to tell you that we’re hard at work on the next issue!

Issue two will be much larger than the first one. We have lots of reviews, news and interviews, plus a contest with some great pizes.

Since this issue will be larger, and since we have contributions from many different writers, we don’t quite have a release-date yet. We hope to publish on friday the 10th, but to get as much great content on the pages, we might have to use another week.

We’ll see, but we’re hard at work, we can promise you that!

We have set up a mailing-list, whichyou can subscribe to from the fontpage of the Nordic ExpressionEngine Users website.

Look for the box in the sidebar!

Really great, congrats for the idea and the work done !

Wow thats really kick ass man. Very professionally done.

Hi all,

Issue 2 is out!

Finally, but I promise it was worth the wait 😊

...and from now on, we’ll publish monthly!

More info in this forum-post and on the website here where you can download the magazine.

Join the mailing-list on the site, to get an e-mail when new issues are out. They will also be announced in #eecms on Twitter and in EllisLab’s FRUP Friday Round-Up newsletter.

Any feedback is welcome, and if you want to write something for the next issue, please don’t hesitate to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Cheers,
Thomas

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