On the surface this question might appear to have an obvious answer.
I'm just not certain.
Anyone can "publish" their portfolios onto their own sites, or any number of sites like APUG.
I'm curious about these questions:
Are book publishers doing fewer photo books?
Are photogs as motivated to get a book publisher, now that they can put them on the web?
Is the quality of web photo material equal to book photo material?
Has the prestige of being published by traditional means been increased, or decreased, by web publishing?
With digital, getting pictures online is a cinch. Getting analog pictures online incures a quality penalty, unless you have a really expensive scanner.
Dave,
It has and it hasn't. Publications that are driven by ad sales suffered pretty hard. Newspapers are loosing subscriptions and loosing ad dollars really fast. With the exception of the Wall Street Journal. They charge for there web content too and are actually making a lot of $$. Book publishers on the other hand are able to make small print runs to test a product or market thanks to the digital age. More titles with smaller volume means they can find a sweet spot with there product offerings.
I think as a photographer a published work weather in a magazine or a book is a big accomplishment. If you have your own book published then that is the holey grail. Big coffee table type books have a much longer life span than a web site.
The web opened markets like Amazon, and publication ventures like Lulu; it has also slowed down a lot of traffic to brick-and-mortar stores, but then big retail chains had already started the trend.
However, like jstraw says, hearing about magazines on the web just made me hunt them or sometimes directly subscribing to them online because I can't find them where I live.
I'm sure the impact has to be qualified by market segment, size, &c of publishers.
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The web opened markets like Amazon, and publication ventures like Lulu; it has also slowed down a lot of traffic to brick-and-mortar stores, but then big retail chains had already started the trend.
However, like jstraw says, hearing about magazines on the web just made me hunt them or sometimes directly subscribing to them online because I can't find them where I live.
I'm sure the impact has to be qualified by market segment, size, &c of publishers.
I should clarify my statement as regards my own consumption of information.
Occupancy of the mindshare that once belonged to magazines and that has been replaced by the web has almost entirely been replaced by sites that have nothing to do with magazines that I did or did not read, previously. I don't read American Photographer on or off-line. I read APUG...for example.
I may read a magazine article online from time to time, if I'm following a link. I have precisely ZERO magazine websites bookmarked.
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I think that part of what appears to be the impact of web based publishing is also affected by the trend of younger people to go directly to an online site for what they want, while older people like me still first go to the mom and pop shops (the few that are left) before going online.
"Are photogs as motivated to get a book publisher, now that they can put them on the web?"
I think that it is *easier* to self publish online than it is to get a traditional publisher, and this may make it seem like that is how people are going these days, and perhaps it is, but there is also the volume sold using either method to consider...
"Is the quality of web photo material equal to book photo material?"
Not even close...
"Has the prestige of being published by traditional means been increased, or decreased, by web publishing?"
Vanity presses are still vanity presses, and online publishers still carry very little weight, at least in library circles that I've been involved in. I've yet to see a library that will stock a book published on Lulu or a similar outfit. I would certainly attribute the same level of credibility to a self-published book that I would on a web page - which is to say very little.
As to magazines that are all online, I have never paid for one, nor will I. The same goes for a book - I want to hold what I read and I have little or no interest in paying for something that can only be seen on a computer screen. Even so, I believe that I am in the shrinking minority now days, as young people seem to embrace the Internet and all things associated with it while eschewing traditional versions of the same things...
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist" -- Louis Nizer
Yes, just go to a book store and see. The down side is the up side though. I always wanted some nice hard cover books and now the prices are really low, though the net of course. The down side is the lack of new books.
I was at a "Half Price Books" chain and found some photo books by a Roger Hicks at less than half price, a give away. I didn't buy them but some one will get a deal.
Has Web Publishing hurt Hard Copy? 
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