What is a 'Bookazine'?

I have just started reading this book (and already I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in magazine design - unfortunately it is only available in German)

and have come across an unfamiliar term - 'bookazine'. This concept is becoming more and more popular, so as graphic designers (especially the ones working in the magazine industry) we should know what it is.

Apparently a bookazine is a hybrid of a BOOK and a MAGAZINE. The name says it all.

According to this website, it's "a glossy, A4 perfect bound (stitched paged) one-off product ... generally ... between 116 and 132 pages, and ...  all printed on very high quality thick paper, with a glossy cover. Bookazines are specialist titles covering an area or genre, which also contain a small percentage of advertising to make the product more affordable".

It is said that as magazines are fading away slowly (I am not convinced), more and more bookazines are popping up. People can get the information they find in magazines online, so there is no need to spend the money on an actual magazine. Bookazines, on the other hand, offer more than just the info you would also find online. I provides more research, more insight, more analysis (hence the thickness). Which is als why they appear less frequently than magazines, but have a longer shelf life.

An example of a bookazine:

Creatives will be familiar with this range of bookazines, which can be found in the Computer/Technology section of most magazine racks. Can you think of any South African bookazines? Has the trend even picked up in South Africa yet? Will it?

We are told time and time again that print is dead and that magazines will become obsolete unless they go digital. I am not so sure. I am still a big fan of magazines - there is just something about being able to hold them, page through them, smell them - something the tablet can't offer.

However, I am not sure that making magazines more bookish will help keep magazines alive. Do you? If I want a book, I will buy a book. What you also need to consider is that these bookazines cost more than your average magazine - and even those are already expensive as is, I think.

It will be interesting to see what happens... If more and more bookazines will hit the shelves. In the mean time, I will stay loyal to my Cosmo, my Essentials, my Elle...