Allusionz Network Magazine Launches
Syntagma Media is pleased to announce the launch of its first network magazine : Allusionz, devoted to the Arts and Philosophies.
The portal has been designed by Swedish webmaestro and journalist, Thord Hedengren, who also writes for The Blog Herald.
We still have a number of features to put up on the page, but the essential shape and content is there.
The four-post block to left, will be chosen regularly by an editor (currently yours truly), and there’s a feed from the whole magazine to the right. Graphical links to each section of the magazine — represented by standalone websites — are shown below the posts.
Personally, I’m delighted with Thord’s work on this and the energy and speed with which he accomplished it. His remit was to produce a simple, functional page, to drive traffic to sites, in a pleasing and designer-labelled setting. He’s done that magnificently.
The template will be used for our other two network magazines : 21st-century Phi (Sciences and Future Technologies) and LifeTimes (Lifestyles and Celebrities) which will be live very soon.
So get rid of your illusions, read Allusionz.
[...] John Evans details: The four-post block to left, will be chosen regularly by an editor (currently your truly), and there’s a feed from the whole magazine to the right. Graphical links to each section of the magazine — represented by standalone websites — are shown below the posts. [...]
By Syntagma’s Network Magazine Debuts at The Blog Herald on November 17th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
I love it!
By Steve Newman on November 17th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Muchas gracias, Stephano.
By John Evans on November 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Thanks you, HART. No commenting on this site, though, as it’s simply a portal (traffic driver) to the other sites. Think of it as the contents page in a print mag, but with added online goodies.
I agree with you about the multicolumns, they look so much better than the uni-columnar blog style. The URLs for the other two are :
PhiMagazine.com
LifeTimesMagazine.com
By John Evans on November 17th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Looks more polished, John, so kudos on the re-design – I’m liking it.
Although I’d have the headlines clickable to the blog/articles.
I think for a first time visitor they might get confused and think Allusionz is THE magazine (ie: not knowing you have a ton of sites grouped within it). I’d have a text link of all your titles/sections above the fold say where the “More from Allusionz” is – but that’s just my 2 cents worth.
But overall a step in the right direction IMHO. Well done.
By Martin Neumann on November 18th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Thanks, Martin, very generous of you. We’re still teaking the template, and all comments will be carefully looked at.
Allusionz is the digital equivalent of the cover and contents page of a print magazine. That’s what a portal is — it sends traffic to all points at the behest of the reader. There are individual graphic links to the sites below the four-post block, although these may be redone when Thord redesigns the network template.
There’s still a lot to do.
By John Evans on November 18th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
We’re still tweaking, HART, it never stops.
The right column is absolutely fresh content, so having today’s date repeated over and over seemed a bit pointless.
As for the Skype effect, I don’t like it, it’s too cute by far. Those Web 2.0 affectations say one thing to me : there’s nothing here of interest, so enjoy the view and the twiddly bits.
By John Evans on November 19th, 2006 at 10:29 am