"Paper media is not dead," Ally Li, publisher of local magazine SD Magazine said. With a flourish of Internet media, fewer people use paper magazines to catch the news. However, some values of magazines can't be replaced.

 

The content of magazines in Macao gives "Life" as a priority, the style is relaxed and fun. The editor in SD Magazine, Tek Cheang said that most people in Macao aren't interested in political issues or some serious topics, so the subjects of local magazines are concentrated on food, travel, and some interesting reports.

 

"I want more people to know Macao," Li shared the motivation of establishing a magazine publishing company. "When it comes to Macao, people will always associate it with casinos and gambling, therefore, some negative stereotypes are in tourists' minds. ... However, there is lots of delicious food and fun things in Macao, but no proper intermediary channels to introduce Macao to the world," Li said. So she decided to publish SD Magazine, and let people know wonderful Macao.

 

SD Magazine has been publishing for eight years, and increased its reputation in the region successfully. But the magazine is considered as book publication with the "Book Number", the laws don't recognize magazines as a media. As a result, magazine publishing companies are not qualified to get media subsidies from the government like newspaper publishing.

 

SD Magazine publishes 45,000 copies monthly and is distributed free of charge to audiences. So the main revenue is from the advertisement. They will find some stores or activity organizers as their sponsors, and report their products, events or carry their ads in the magazine.

 

With new media springing up like mushrooms, people change their use behavior with the new media. New media is more convenient and immediate, lots of people thus prefer to use the Internet media instead of print media. Will paper media disappear in the future? Cheang doesn't think that magazines will be defeated by the new media. He said different media has different functions. The Internet media reports urgent news, and the magazine carries in-depth converge.

 

Li agreed. She believes that there are unique designs in magazines that make a story more powerful. "A magazine is not just a magazine. It is a content producer," Li said. The most important value in a magazine is its unique "content" which can't be replaced by other media. Despite the content, Cheang considered "typographic design" is another main feature in magazines, as it brings multi-style reports and more vitality. These functions cannot be achieved on Internet media.

 

Despite the characteristics of magazines, Macao people's habits are also a crucial element for the development of magazines. Cheang said that Macao people are used to accessing information by reading books, because a substantial object brings people a sense of security and reality, and the quality is examined thoroughly. In addition to audience, sponsors are the other powerful supporters of magazines. Compared to the Internet media, they prefer to invest in the "visible and tangible things". With financial support, magazines remain in an invincible position in the era of information explosion.

 

With changing times, one type of media can't exist independently nowadays. Li said SD Magazine turned to an integrated media named "SD Media" about four years ago. It not only publishes magazines, but also holds some PR events and performs content marketing in Facebook now. With multiple media, audiences can access different concepts and information. Different media has different values, but when they are integrated together, the influence is unlimited.