—Do we think recreating a magazine in a digital format is a viable alternative for our readers? The evidence is that duplicative content is not enough to attract an audience in the digital space. And isn’t the tactile physicality of a magazine ­– the fact that it’s a real object that you can hold in your hand – a major part of its appeal?  While there are some digital solutions out there that make a virtual magazine more intriguing, it’s still a reach to say that such subscriptions are a true substitute for our existing businesses.

—Why reinvent the wheel? The Apples and Amazons of the world have an excellent track record in building good relationships with consumers.  They’ve shown us how to get people to pay for content by making the purchase experience as painless as possible. It will take a major effort to duplicate their success, and then we’re left with the question of whether consumers want still another place to find and pay for their digital content. Sure, the big digital players take a nice cut for handling your back end, but their solutions are popular and robust. How long before a new one can say the same?

—Will this platform achieve ubiquity? For such a concept to succeed it will need to attract the vast majority of major magazines, including competing behemoths like Hearst and Conde Nast, to avoid another costly format battle that will leave advertisers and consumers confused and alienated. We’re already seeing contrary statements from one big publisher after another, promising to join one platform while trumpeting independent plans of their own. Absence of widespread acceptance of a single standard would severely challenge its efficacy.

One lesson we’ve learned through the years is that new technology needs to be harnessed, not feared. The history of media is pockmarked with threats from emerging technologies that were supposed to eradicate older forms, from talkies in the movie houses to Twitter and Facebook.  What invariably happens is that smart players are invigorated by the new opportunities and by competition; they learn to use what’s new to make what’s old better, finding ways to create new revenue streams and unearth new customers.