It's no secret that launching a magazine is akin to a death wish these days. As much fun as they're to use as office and bathroom decor, they're dying both north and south of the border as advertising dries up, costs escalate and readership migrates to the web. So it's no surprise that those in love with the look of a magazine are trying to make a go of it with online interpretations.

The latest one of these online magazines to cross my radar is called Dead Sexy. It promises to launch in cities around the world, but for now we have a Toronto version and its debut issue just hit the interweb this month.

Like the many online magazines that have preceded it, it's heavy on the photography, light on the word count and is all about scrolling across the screen to flip between pages.

Because I'm a sucker for anything Toronto culture, I'm a fan of the first issue. I like its photos of Ossington, profile on Ezra's Pound and feature on the Gladstone's Christina Zeidler. They also take a look at Meta Gallery, FAT and Sukhothai. Of course, I'm linking to related content on blogTO because one of the issues with this format is that you can't hyperlink to specific pages of their magazine. There's also no RSS, no hyperlinks within the articles and no ability to add a comment. Basically, everything that's great about the web - and reading content like this online - isn't available.

And that makes me worried. The world is already fretting about the print magazine death spiral, I'd hate to see the process get repeated for these aspirational online versions.