Vogue to publish entire archive online?
There’s a rumour going round that Vogue is working on a site that will catalogue every issue ever published. If it’s not true it should be. In an age where the young generation of media consumers do so online, it’s a smart move to make old material newly available to all. There’s an idea that magazines are forever and online is ephemeral. Yes, a magazine is a tangiable product that you can keep and refer back to, but how do you remember in which 1990s Vogue you saw that amazing David Sims editorial? Once something is online, it can be searched and brought up again, it doesn’t just disappear into the ether.
As I mentioned to journalist Ellen Burney, the generation that has grown up with technology doesn’t have magazine nostalgia. If people have never had a relationship with magazines they won’t feel the need to collect them, they’re happy to consume everything online. I think by archiving the Vogue back catalogue online, it will come alive again as ancient articles are easily rediscovered and shared by new readers.
What do you think? Are young people less interested in collecting magazines? Is an online Vogue archive a good idea?
2 August, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
I bought my first ever Vogue copy last year in July and since then I’ve been buying pretty much every copy and scouring the internet for old Vogues I can buy but they’re selling at ridiculous prices. I think this is a brilliant idea, Vogue from the beginning! x
2 August, 2011 @ 6:22 pm
That would be so, so, so wonderful! There’s an image from the early 90s that I’m dying to locate (and embroider on linen!) but cannot find an archive that is not on microfiche (which does not produce good images in my experience). I do hope that this news is not just a rumour . . .
2 August, 2011 @ 9:10 pm
Yes it is important a full archive is kept and also easily viewable.
2 August, 2011 @ 11:51 pm
This is a great idea! I am often intrigued by earlier editions of Vogue as I have only been getting in the past year or so.
http://eighteengramsofglitter.blogspot.com
3 August, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
will it be just the editorials or the entire magazine ?
Honestly I have to say selfishly no – it’s not a good thing . I have been to the Vogue vaults and it’s great . Library’s are good things and making the effort to go and see them in LCF or CSM is worth booking an appointment . Hard copies are good no? It worrys me that with everything available on-line magazines will be come non-existent etc etc ….( I am sooo old fashioned !) bah humbug :-)
14 August, 2011 @ 4:40 pm
Online archiving is always a good idea as long as it’s done with care, and comprehensively, and well indexed.
@Blue – Unfortunately for most people visiting the vaults or the national libraries is not feasible – imagine all the creativity and reimagining the entire Vogue archive will inspire amongst the clever bloggers out there who would never have otherwise seen the images!
I would point you to the National Library of Australia’s Trove website, where the entire back catalogue of the Australian Women’s Weekly is available up until the 1980s – advertisements, knitting patterns, recipes and all.
I could never recommend digitising highly enough.