Grooves Magazine goes digital-only

One of the inspirations for Cyclic Defrost being a print mag – the Canadian (oops, New Jersey-based!) Grooves Magazine – has gone digital only, completely dropping its print version.

It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that I am announcing that after six years, Grooves will no longer be a print publication, but will become an all-digital magazine effective with our next issue. There are a number of reasons for this decision, but I have determined this is the best way for Grooves to continue forward.

I hope this is not an omen.

There was something special about print magazines – especially when they are done well, as Grooves was. The tactile nature, their portability to places where internet and computers do not (and should not go – the toilet, for example), and their permanence and resulting ‘authority’ – the inability to be revised, updated makes for a certain commitment from both reader and writer.

I know from bitter experience how hard print magazines are. We do Cyclic Defrost as a print magazine, a PDF magazine, and as a database driven website to try to meet the different preferred styles amongst our readers. Every issue Dale and I think hard about dropping the print version, but for some reason we keep coming back. If we were a pay-for magazine like Grooves things might be different.

We wish Sean the best of luck with the all-digital version of Grooves.