Slap Magazine going 100% digital – good or bad idea?

Very interesting to see what is happening in the skateboard media industry currently, especially now with High Speed Productions SLAP Magazine announcing that they will be going most likely 100% by December 2008.

As you can guess the opinions about this move go completely from from range of the spectrum to the other, people supporting the move to people calling it the worst thing ever.One thing for sure: it is a quite brave move to go completely over to a website only presence but it could easily work out with the current popularity of their community forums which receive in Slap editor Mark Whiteley’s words “Everybody knows the popularity of the forum- we get literally millions of people a month coming to the site”.

Of course it’s not the same as holding a publication in your hand and passing it on to a friend. Or – funnily enough this opinion pops up a lot – you can’t really take your desktop computer to the toilet with you can you? But it does offer huge possibilities in interconnecting information, audio, video and user comments to really give us a view of the bigger picture. New layout possibilities and the chance to bring the news a lot faster to everybody around the world. Yeah, that’s why I’ve been working on Europeskate for over two years. A lot smaller costs, the chance to work wherever I am on this planet and the possibility to change the look of the site whenever I want.

Slap will be publishing another three copies of the print issue before the changeover is made so we can all look forward to the new look in December. Make sure you read the interview from Adam Sullivan with Mark Whiteley over at the Transworld Business website as it gives a lot more insight into what Slap wants to achieve. Good luck Slap!

- Same interview, just on the Slap website with a lot of entertaining comments