RIBA Journal has a new digital dynamic
So – our transformation is complete. Last year’s project was the total redesign of the RIBA Journal and our Products in Practice supplement in print. This year it’s the reconstruction of our website, starting from first principles. Ribaj.com is very different not only from our previous offering, but also from other sites in our field. There’s still plenty to do, not least uploading archive content, but we now have a digital presence of – we hope you’ll agree – quite some verve and loveliness. We have kept it simple and flexible: this site adapts to your devices automatically, from desktop widescreen via tablet to your phone. No need for a separate mobile app.
This raises the question: what’s a magazine? Well, your monthly print version will continue to arrive on your doormats, but we are now pursuing a digital-first policy. Online, we are not monthly but daily, as new material is added. It has material from both the RIBAJ and PIP. A roster of contributors, both new and familiar, is taking part in this new venture, from Charles Holland and Elly Ward championing ‘ordinary architecture’ to Adam Nathaniel Furman’s selections of telling architectural archetypes.
Building studies, profiles, columns and some technical articles will appear online first, plus product information to inform your specification. The print magazine will carry an edited selection of these. And finally? The third plank of our strategy is our live events programme. So far this year we have run successful events on custom-build housing and sustainability. Coming up are RIBAJ-branded conferences on BIM through the Plan of Work, Opportunities in Education Buildings, and in November our major event with NBS Live: Digital Thinking, Smart Building.
We now have a digital presence of – we hope you’ll agree – quite some verve and loveliness
All this is done on a self-sustaining basis: the Journal, based in RIBA Enterprises, is not funded from your membership subscription, but from the income we generate. This investment in print and digital versions helps to secure that income for the future by being attractive to our readers (an audited 27,613 in print, countless more online) and our advertisers, sponsors and awards partners.
As you browse the site you will see that everything is sorted not only by article type but also geographically: your UK region or nation is specifically represented along with other worldwide projects. As the site develops, and more archive content is added, this will become a significant searchable resource. If you want to know about new content at regular intervals, sign up to our email newsletters via the homepage. And of course let us know not only what you think about the RIBAJ, not only about buildings and projects you’d like us to consider for publication, but also about issues concerning you in the world of architecture generally: all contact information opens up from the bottom of the homepage.
Taken as a whole, this transformation of the RIBA Journal is the most significant in the 121 years since 1893 when President John Macvicar Anderson merged the learned and the professional publications to make ‘The New Journal’. Once again, we’re new.