There's probably heaps of reasons, but I'll point out this one: Latency. Online 'magazines' -- professional "blogs" with magazine style articles -- can publish

There's probably heaps of reasons, but I'll point out this one: Latency. Online 'magazines' -- professional "blogs" with magazine style articles -- can publish an article whenever its done (or even before its done, you can always edit it later). An issue of a magazine comes out every month/quarter etc. and needs content, editing, (usually) advertising placement, layout, printing, distribution etc. to all be done up front and with better/more quality control. This is really a reason why magazines "lost" to the web, but my point is that books didn't. Books can also survive digitally as ebooks, but an emagazine is (would be) just a less convenient website. A couple of other thoughts (not reasons or considered arguments): I feel like buying a magazine is an indulgence. It costs money and has the weight of the resources used to produce it. This means that a magazine feels like an object that should be worth something, which raises the standard for the content. When I did read magazines regularly, I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. A physical book is easier to see as a valuable object in the long term -- keeping them around doesn't (immediately) make you look like a hoarder and they're easier to give away or sell to other people.