Money Starts To (Hopefully) Flow Towards Online Magazines

Well here is finally some good news for print journalism: Godengo, a magazine-to-website service platform has raised $2.16 million in funding for continuing project development.

The Silicon Valley company uses a publishing system that is completely browser-based, meaning that you’re not just uploading your magazines’ text onto a Web site and letting readers engage the same way they would a print version. Instead, Gondengo also brings applications to the table, allowing publishers to interact with their readership in an entirely new way: whether it’s polls, message boards, calendars, or comments.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Any great blog with an active readership has implemented many of those features two years ago, with the whole Web 2.0 boom. But it’s encouraging to see print publications being offered a system that could let them compete with their Web-based competitors without having to sacrifice their original content. Let’s just see if Gondengo can make good on the advertising revenue side of its program, where inevitably all publications, print and Web, are groping around blindly, waiting to strike gold.

For a countering viewpoint, Alarm Clock has a more skeptical reaction: Magazine Site Publisher Godengo Raises $2.1M

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.