Database Sophistication Leads to Personalized Publishing
Reason Magazine Editor Nick Gillespie asks, "What if you received a magazine that only had stories and ads that you were interested in and pertained to you? That would be a magazine that everyone would want to read."
He's right and his magazine has already demonstrated the power of databases in generating custom content. As a demonstration of this nascent potential, the June issue of Reason Magazine will be delivered to its 40,000 subscribers with 40,000 separate covers. Each cover will show a real satellite photo of their neighborhood with their house circled.
While that's not a stunning display of database knowledge, a publication that would contain only what mattered to you would be. There would be no need for a magazine called Sport Illustrated or Entertainment Weekly or Car and Driver. All relevant content would be pulled into on magazine and it would be called (Insert Your Name Here). If this model reached a workable level of sophistication where every content desire of the individual could be delivered, the magazine newsstand business wouldn't have much going for it. Why would you read a bland copy of Newsweek or have to buy several copies of magazines to serve your various interests when you could buy one that contained it all. Oh yea, this is all very futuristic but its not unworkable and its not far off.
