Magazines companies are taking a preemptive strike at building an interactive magazine prototype for tablet computing. As you already know, the publishing industry smells trouble. As content continually migrates from the paper pages to the Internet, magazines and newspapers subscriptions are facing extinction. Profits are dwindling as people trade the paper medium for the free web version of the content. Why pay for it when you can get it for free, right? Although sometimes, I think we forget that nothing in this life is free. Someone always flips the bill. So if we don’t start paying for it, eventually people will stop producing it (unless your idea premium content is amateur shorts on YouTube).
Magazines and newspapers such as Sports Illustrated, WIRED, and the New York Times, are already banking on tablets coming in and saving the day. They believe that this mysterious hero will provide a new avenue to explore magazines in different and exciting ways. Sports Illustrated has already a working prototype of their interactive magazine. It allows you to customize your experience: organize content the way you would like; watch embedded video clips; browse through their photography section; and much more. Since actions speak louder than words, the video below would probably give you a better idea.
The New York Times has been playing with different way to absorb content. As you might already know, you can get a copy of the New York Times automatically download to your Amazon Kindle. Don’t have a Kindle? Well you can try out either the Times Skimmer, or the Times Reader. These two products allow you to consume the news in a different layout. Times Skimmer is web based and presents various articles in a table, making it easy to skim through the headlines that catch your attention. On the other hand, the Times Reader sits on your computer, and the new addition is instantly delivered to your computer… for a small subscription fee of course (those who already subscribe to the New York Times can get this service for free). WIRED also has a prototype which was previewed at the WIRED store.
Interactive magazines also have the potential of bringing in new advertising revenue stream, giving the advertiser space to add interactive content to their advertisements. The addition of interactive elements allows magazines to demand more money for this type of engagement with the consumer. Also, the ability to download new issues to your tablet (instead of waiting for it in the mail), and the increased content interaction, may be enough to get consumers to purchase a subscription.
Personally, I can’t wait for the tablet computer market to boom. I want one, and I want it now! I love reading magazines, and reading one on a tablet computer would be even better. A great combination of high quality imagery, carefully selected typography, and superbly written articles always makes it a joyous experience, and brings the story to life page by page.
Category design, technology Tags publishing, tablet
The key to success for magazine manufacturers will be to add in innovative content specially made fore the tablet format.