As traditional print media scrambles to find firm ground despite crumbling atrophy - the thing I was still so excited about and hopeful for as a creative was the rapid emergence of unique, fresh, bold and innovative independent publishers. 

Sure, independent publishers have smaller budgets (if any) and the audiences are certainly a bit more finite. But also, there is far less overhead, the audiences are hyper focused and there is more bandwidth for creative exploration.

Unfortunately… the same greed, which has been eradicating traditional publishers is now infecting independent publishers.

• Zero quality control
• Abysmal editorial standards (if any)
• and offensively bad design

Yet these publishers are charging premium sponsored rates for features on the cover and inside their magazines. 

If sponsored content is your business model, and I’m not going to argue in favor or against that, you absolutely need to do better for your advertisers, editorial contributors, as well as potential readers. 

https://jamespatrick.com/