December Nomination: Kontaktmag’s On-the-Fly DIY

The sky is falling in the publishing biz. It seems that no matter where you turn, newspapers and magazines are folding (pardon the pun) -- and a huge contributor to the plight of this paper-based industry is the cost of printing and distribution. We call it the Great Crumpling.

One local mag circumvented this whole mess and, with nary the whisper of outside help, yanked their entire monthly publication from the offset press and injected it into WordPress. Kontakt Magazine, a Valley staple of contemporary design and urban living, metamorphosed into a 100% online entity in December 2008 -- stylishly shortening its name to kontaktmag as well. But it’s not the sea change from print to web that tugged at our attention -- it was the pub’s bootstrapping gumption to tackle the transition themselves, from learning web development to designing in-house to the complete transition of content to the new site.

Over a three-month period in the Fall of 2008, publisher Don Crossland and editor Tyler Hurst tapped into the power of WordPress and festooned their site to new tricked-out heights. With a content-fed desktop widget and connections on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Flicker -- not to mention soon-to-come video podcasts and an iPhone app -- kontaktmag seems to have no hesitation in shedding their analog ancestry. And they made that evolutionary leap on their own, without the generation-bridging punditry of an outside agency consultant.

With a brand sporting "Modern living. Forward thinking." as its tag, the move seems perfectly prescient given the state of newspaper/magazine readership trends, which are veering heavily toward online consumption in kontaktmag’s demographic. Maintaining the integrity of its brand during the transition was a key point, as publisher Don Crossland shared with us. "I feel an online magazine with new media integration is very forward thinking. There are a multitude of design blogs and the design magazines have their sites, but I wanted to marry the two formats. I had to create a balance between a clean, minimalist design and the content-heavy nature of the web."

kontaktmag’s extreme DIY proves that lofty endeavors don’t require lofty budgets -- not even for the intimidating task of a format overhaul. With patience, mettle and a keen eye on the prize, you can do it too -- and you’re welcome to tell us all about it at theoddy.com.