Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Net (magazine)

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Editor
  
Philip Morris

Frequency
  
Monthly

Publisher
  
Future plc

Categories
  
Internet

Circulation
  
12,703 Jan-Dec 2016

First issue
  
1994 - Present

Net (magazine)

net is a monthly print magazine that publishes content on web development and design. Founded in 1994, the magazine is published in the UK by Future plc. It is widely recognized as the premiere print publication for web designers. The magazine can be purchased from most major book retailers, including the American Barnes & Noble.

Contents

The magazine was initially aimed at the general Internet user, but has adapted into a title aimed at professional and novice web designers; a significant proportion of its readers are full-time web developers. Its sister publication, the web design-focused Creative Bloq blog, is estimated to receive over 9 million monthly readers according to analytics firm SimilarWeb.

The company, and its parent Future plc, are also known for their annual The Net Awards, which is an awards body recognizing outstanding achievements in the web development industry.

Content

Typically, each issue contains the following sections:

/inbox
Letters from magazine readers. A Mail of the Month is chosen by the editorial staff that wins a £50 book voucher for books by technology publisher O'Reilly. This section also includes Penny Forum which publishes a joke or surreal thread from the magazines forums.
/feed
Taglined choice cuts from across the web, feed is a combination of news and editorial about the Internet. For example, Industry News, Book Reviews, which is the best... and a column by a different industry professional each month. Also included in this section is Net Gamer, which is one of the few parts of the magazine that doesn't deal with web development and the Internet.

The Net Awards

The ".net" brand is known throughout the web development industry for its long-running annual The Net Awards, which awards outstanding achievements in the field. Now in their 16th year, the awards recognize the new talent, trends, and technologies that have pushed the web forward over the previous twelve months, as well as recognizing outstanding contributions by established individuals and companies. The annual judging panel is made up of notable industry veterans and thought leaders.

Categories include Agency of the Year, Individual Outstanding Contribution, Developer of the Year, and Best Collaborative Project. Notable past winners include BBC News (redesign of the year), Dropbox (mobile app of the year), Old Spice (viral campaign of the year), Flickr (mobile site of the year), and Jeffrey Zeldman (web standards advocate).

The annual voting process begins with a public nominations phase. In 2015 alone, over 1,000 nominee considerations were submitted. These are whittled down to ten nominees per category by the award's judging body. Next, a public voting phase occurs to allow for community impact to play a role in each project's consideration. Finally, the judges weigh in to determine the winners of each category. Awards are given out live at the year-end ceremony in London.

History

The magazine was launched in 1994. In December 2013 (issue 248) it was re-badged as net (magazine) to end confusion with Microsoft's .NET Framework which launched in 2002. Along with the name change the magazine was give the tag line "The voice of web design".

Redesign

In August 2006 (Issue 152), the magazine was redesigned to include a new themed cover design and a new inner layout. Other changes were the addition of a new section at the back of the magazine called Trash replacing comics by drew and the Hi! Monkey Soon after the redesign a column entitled Web Drifter was introduced; written by Martin Sargent, it usually contained issues and language considered vulgar by the readership, and it was subsequently cancelled.

In issue 152, the Penny Forum section was removed but reinstated for issue 153 onwards due to large reader response to its removal. Another addition was Web Pro in the latter half of the magazine. This is sectioned into several topics (web security, careers, search engine news and web hosting) and written by industry professionals. There is also a web FAQ section.

Conference

net launched its Generate Conference in 2014. The event consists of a single-track, two-day series of speeches and workshops presented by prominent individuals in the web design industry.

The inaugural conference took place in London, with Shopify and Badoo acting as featured sponsors. The 2015 conference took place in New York City, with Media Temple acting as the featured sponsor.

Past speakers include Dan Cederholm (of Dribbble), Jake Archibald (of Google Chrome), Remy Sharp (of Polyfill), Ethan Marcotte (of responsive web design), and Elliot Jay Stocks (of Adobe Typekit).

Company

As of August 10, 2014, the magazine continues to be published in print and also distributed digitally through iTunes and Google Play. Selections of the more recent content of the net magazine are also published freely at Future's Creative Bloq website, which was launched in 2012.

The chief editorial team consists of Philip Morris (editor), Callie Green (production editor), Will Shum (Senior art editor).

References

Net (magazine) Wikipedia