The nonprofit news venue Voice of San Diego is no longer digital-only. This month VSD launched a monthly print magazine, which it’s selling for $7.99…

The magazine, Voice of San Diego Monthly, repurposes content from the website and is generated by MagCloud, a fee-based print-on-demand service from Hewlett-Packard.

VSD Monthly is available both in print and iPad editions. The digital edition is free, and the magazine is also included as a perk of VSD’s membership program. This experiment is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

In a recent KnightBlog post, VSD CEO Scott Lewis explained how it works:

“Say you have an idea for a magazine. All you have to do is come up with the content and design and then upload it. People can buy it if they want to hold the magazine in their hands, spill coffee on it without worrying or stuff it in their purse or briefcase. ...We design and upload the magazine. If you decide to buy it, either the digital or print version, MagCloud takes a cut and sends the difference to us.”

Any digital publication could try this strategy. According to HP’s MagCloud info, “There’s no cost to upload a publication, and once you do, you can make it available in print and in digital through the MagCloud online storefront for the cost of production plus any markup you want to add on. You can then direct your customers to the online store to place their orders, and we will take care of all transactions, printing, shipping and digital distribution for you. You can track your sales through the MagCloud website, and receive your earnings at the end of each month.”

See the MagCloud cost calculator to estimate printing and shipping costs.

The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.