After all the posts I've written about the Death of Print, and magazine after magazine folding, I can't tell you how excited I was when a fellow editor threw down a newly launched regional niche magazine called Nug.

Now, he was mocking the magazine ... a little ... because of its, well, nature. And we all had a good giggle over it. But still. The fact that in this economic climate of plummeting ad dollars and lean editorial pages, it's pretty neat to see a start up magazine in all its glory.

Nug magazine is all about cannabis, specifically medical marijuana.

(Yes, it's published in Southern California.)

It's a bi-monthly publication, owned and operated by local medical marijuana patients and activists. The magazine claims that large portions of its profits are given back to the community organizations it partners with.

So it's not as poignant or influential as some of the big national titles, in that it will reach hundreds of thousands of subscribers with a common interest, generating millions in ad dollars, but I have to give Nug credit for believing that a print magazine was the most effective way to reach its readers.

Woo hoo! There are still believers in the power of print magazines. So I'm on Nug's side.

My first impression of the publication was that is was pretty hefty for a free mag. Its second issue, Sept/Oct 2009, is absolutely jammed packed with ads in 66 pages. And just about every single ad used the word "cannabis," "bud," and the color green, except for an ad for "innovative growing solutions," which made me giggle.

I also enjoyed the many ads featuring a variety of fuzzy marijuana plants: purple haze, hindu kush, bubble funk, headband, bubba kush, trainwreck, AK-47, blueberry yum yum and super silver haze.

Who knew?

The editorial is seriously lean, and as you can imagine written with a true activist tone, which might turn some off; but that's what its purpose is, to push the medical marijuana agenda. I just wish it had more editorial. I also wish the editors would invest in a copyeditor. But they're just getting started so I'll be patient.

There's a little something for everyone, a couple recipes, book reviews, reader submitted poems and photos. (Yes they are poems about bud and photos of bud.) I enjoyed reading the 3.5-page feature on "San Diego's HUGE Hemp History."

All in all, it's a good sign to see a new magazine started, even if it's on a small local scale, and I'm watching for the mag industry as a whole to launch into a revival of print. (Read: Please bring back Domino.)