Magazines have always been a personal favorite of mine but it’s becoming more and more apparent that unless many of even the most well read title don’t change and adapt that they are heading for trouble. I don’t like to use the word extinction but they will certainly need to look quite a bit different to be viable in the digital era.

One way that can happen is to branch out into a services model. We are seeing this approach with large publishers like Hearst who purchased icrossing to provide online marketing services to its stable of offerings. Others are following suit as well.

An interesting approach is being taken by International Data Group’s magazine stalwarts in the tech world, PCWorld and Macworld. B to B Online reports

International Data Group’s PCWorldand Macworld announced Wednesday the formation of a custom content division called PCWorld|Macworld Content Works. The division will produce white papers, videos, events, websites and other materials for technology marketers.

Ted Greenwald was named content director of Content Works. Previously, he was a senior editor at Wired.

This is no small switch. The idea is that since there is so much noise in the marketplace these two experienced information gathering and reporting groups could take their resources and generate content that can be used by other tech companies. The inherent value is that the quality of this content would be far superior to anything that can produced internally or elsewhere thus making it worth the investment.

I am going to keep an eye on Content Works to see if it really does work. It’s the kind of repositioning that make the difference between a magazine flourishing or just surviving.

What are your thoughts?