Get the Digital Issue of Nylon, Click the MySpace Links

Poring over the NY Times again while visiting Steve Gilbert’s big house in Lambertville, I found this short article about MySpace providing a spot on the web for Nylon magazine. It’s an ingenious idea: The music and fashion magazine will publish a digital June/July issue, which readers can download, that will be identical to the print version that comes out later.

The digital issue will contain links on MySpace to the bands, artists and designers mentioned in the magazine, allowing readers to download featured music and clips. “The idea is to have everything in the issue tagged back to a MySpace account,” said Marvin Scott Jarrett, the editor of Nylon. In future issues, they will sell the digital issue for .99.

You’ll see much more of this kind of cross promotion and using the vastly more powerful web to boost sales and interest in print. That’s my take on this move. It is looking like Rupert’s $580 million price was another sly deal by the old guy, who truly knows which way the media is heading.