business model innovation design we're on a road to nowhere // on a quest to analyze and explore the design of business model innovations, i.e. 'hideous and hidden things' like organizational structures and capabilities, corporate strategies and all things related // on a yellow brick road with a girl, a lion and a straw-man wasting our time // …

Michael Arrington on the business model of JPG Magazine, merging user-generated content, community-building, -brokering and -spanning.

Yes, this hybrid business model’s central trait is this spanning capability, i.e. a premium on connectivity, bridging between offline and online audiences:

More print magazines should be doing similar things to embrace an online community instead of just copying their print content to their website. Periodic news magazines have no chance over the long run against their own online competitors. But magazines like JPG Mag, which people want to keep and display over the long run, can be successful. If they come up with the right way to bridge the online and offline worlds.