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SL Business Mag Launches

Posted Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006, at 10:52 am Eastern by Mark Wallace
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The new business magazine for the virtual world of Second Life (which I blogged last week) published its first issue yesterday. Though the mag’s Web site is a bit confusing to navigate and the publishers have stayed with their decision to use PDF rather than a more Web-friendly format, the writing in the articles is by and large better than that found in most SL publications. The content, however, leaves something to be desired, as it seems to be aimed mostly at new residents who don’t yet have a business presence on the Grid. That said, it’s interesting to see a wider range of content creators featured in a publication like this. The question is whether the current incarnation — both in terms of content and format — will be sustainable.

I won’t belabor the PDF question except to wonder whether it will put a brake on downloads. It doesn’t seem to stop the Metaverse Messenger, however, if their circulation figures are to be believed, and their PDF is even harder to read than SL Business’s. SL Business, in fact, looks absolutely great. The problem is, its content doesn’t quite live up to its image, and one is left wondering why a disproportionate amount of effort has been spent on the visuals.

The mag, even at 60 pages(!), doesn’t really deliver the kind of news and business information it seems to promise. Almost every article is either a brief tutorial of only the most basic aspects of SL business life — snapshots, music streaming, fashion design — or brief profiles of various content creators. Two articles — one on copyright and IP, and one on investment opportunities — contain so little useful information that they’d have been better off left out, in my opinion. There’s also a real lack of anything resembling economic or business data, data that SL proprietors would find quite useful, I’d imagine.

As noted, it’s great to see a wider range of content creators featured in a publication like this, but the book ends up coming off more as a shopping mag than anything else. Keep in mind that a good shopping mag would be a great boon to SL, and if SL Business were somehow to morph into that kind of animal, I’d imagine it could be great success. Also note that many of those profiled also have an ad in the mag, often opposite their profiles. It would be good to know whether these were comped or paid, and exactly what the relationship between advertising and editorial is. If it’s a pay-to-play arrangement, be open about it; it won’t necessarily drive readers away.

Part of the problem will be to sustain the tone and volume of the content. There are only so many tutorials one can publish. And producing 60 pages a month in an environment like SL will also be a strain, I’d imagine. Even the tutorials themselves could go a bit deeper; most of them hardly give any more information than SL itself provides.

I look forward to seeing what SL Business becomes. If it remains what it is now, I think it will be of limited usefulness — although it would definitely be a good place to discover the odd piece of new content. If it refines its focus somewhat, it could be really good. And if it provides Web content in addition to a PDF, it could catch on in a big way. I do think it’s great to see new media outlets crop up in Second Life, though, and I wish SL Biz the best of luck.

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