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The future of the magazine, courtesy of the iPad

By | April 5, 2010, 2:15am PDT

Summary: With the arrival of the iPad and other tablets, magazines have a chance to go beyond a boring print-to-digiital conversion

This post originally appeared on SmartPlanet

Thanks to the new Apple iPad and other tablet devices, the future of the magazine is exciting, indeed.

Popular Science has announced Popular Science+, the first title to emerge from the Bonnier Corp. Mag+ initiative that takes a magazine and turns it digital.

“It’s not re-creating the magazine; it’s re-creating the magazine experience,” the publisher says.

According to the company, the iPad has given it a chance to imagine the magazine as an interactive platform, across six pillars:

  • “Quiet,” simple interaction, unlike the distracting Web.
  • Fluid motion that uses “flow” to replace the “flip” of a page.
  • Carefully curated layout and design
  • Defined beginnings and ends. “It’s the end of endlessness,” Bonnier says.
  • Issue-based delivery — like a podcast, unlike a blog.
  • Advertising as content, rather than “shoot the monkey” display ads

Basically, it’s the next logical step beyond reading a PDF of your favorite glossy.

Bonnier partnered with London-based design firm BERG for the initiative.

Here’s a look in a video from Dec. 2009:

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

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Topics

Apple iPad, Magazine, Tablets, Notebooks, Podcasts, Advertising & Promotion, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Internet, Marketing, Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger for more than 18 years.

Disclosure

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at ZDNet, the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

11
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RE: The future of the magazine, courtesy of the iPad
czei 9th Apr 2010
If anyone thinks the future of magazines is on the iPad, the first
example being touted by Apple, the iPad version of Popular
Science is a complete failure. As far as I can tell they did
everything wrong.

The promise of a tablet-based magazine is that it can deliver
interactive content and advertising tailored to my interests. Here,
not only is the advertising fixed, but you are forced to view page
after page of full page advertising to view articles, even after
paying $5 for the privilege. At least in a magazine you can flip
pages and read whatever parts you want, or look in the index to
see where to find something, none of which is possible with the
iPad version. Why is forcing the reader to view each page in order
considered an improvement over paper which has no such
limitation?

Its simply not interactive, not even in the limited sense in a
magazine where you can flip to a different section. Not even the
*index* is interactive! You can't just tap on the article you want to
read, instead you are forced to turn all of the "pages" in order,
presumably to make sure you see all of the advertisements. The
designers called this feature "the end of endlessness."

Once on a "page", the text is overlaid on top of images making it
hard to read, and both the text blocks and the "page" backgrounds
randomly jump around and change so its impossible to tell if you're
even reading the same article, not that there's much to read. The
designers wax philosophical about their user interface
breakthrough of "flow is the new flip" without stopping to think that
a reader does NOT want the text to be moving underneath them
when they are trying to read!

To add insult to injury, if you touch anywhere on the "page"
thinking its interactive all of the text goes away, and you have to
touch in the same place to bring it back. Fail to tap in the same
place and your text seems to be gone forever. It's maddening to
have the text disappear if you happen to accidentally touch the
screen.

In short, from a reader's perspective it's just a user interface
nightmare. The designer's use of made-up jargon to justify this
travesty is the worst sort of pseudo-design ********, the kind that
makes this reader's skin crawl.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
The magazine doesn't have a future...
Sleeper Service 5th Apr 2010
...much as the traditional press would rather that wasn't the case.
0 Votes
+ -
The video is pretty impressive though
CobraA1 5th Apr 2010
The video is pretty impressive though. It goes
outside the box and brings the power of the
computer to turn what used to be static page
turning into an impressively dynamic experience.

It includes stuff like being able to search the
text, and clip out text and images for sharing.
0 Votes
+ -
A suitably equipped Laptop can offer all the same functionality as the iPad
Dietrich T. Schmitz, Linux Advocate Updated - 5th Apr 2010
Pay-walls won't succeed except in a minority of use cases as it is overwhelmingly accepted as common-practice to read content on the internet without paying for it.
0 Votes
+ -
It very well could happen.
CobraA1 5th Apr 2010
It very well could happen. I believe the major
OSes are all capable of multitouch now, and
even Microsoft is demonstrating that they can
build an OS that will run on low power devices.

. . . and it's not as if tablet PCs are
something new. If the iPad starts taking off,
I'm willing to bet that PC manufacturers are
gonna be pushing to have their own equivalent
devices on the market.

I know you're a staunch Linux advocate - but I
wouldn't discount Microsoft from trying to step
into this space. They could do it in one of two
ways: With Windows 7, or with Windows Phone 7.
Both OSes are multitouch capable, and it'll be
interesting to see which strategy they decide
to go with.
0 Votes
+ -
Agreed. They certainly have the 'wherewithall' to do that.
Dietrich T. Schmitz, Linux Advocate 5th Apr 2010
nt
0 Votes
+ -
I've head similar logic....
James Quinn 5th Apr 2010
The iPod was not the first and or only MP3 player and the rest of the
industry would kick in if it the iPod took of. It did and the rest tried
mightily and well the rest is history. Fairly recent history as well. Should
not be that difficult to learn from it but so far it has been.

Pagan jim
0 Votes
+ -
Well . . .
CobraA1 5th Apr 2010
Well, it's not as if Microsoft (or any other
company) has given up and stopped making MP3
players. Just because you're not the biggest
doesn't mean you're not profitable.

And it's not as if this is just an MP3 player,
either. It's almost a full computer, in some
respects. Microsoft has a much better track record
with computers.
0 Votes
+ -
Interesting, although . . .
CobraA1 5th Apr 2010
Interesting, although seeing designs like this actually
get implemented tends to fall to the wayside if the
designers aren't active in developing an actual product.
Would be a good app for the iPad or a tablet PC.
0 Votes
+ -
Hang on: An iPad 'is' a tablet PC. The converse is not true.
Dietrich T. Schmitz, Linux Advocate 5th Apr 2010
nt
0 Votes
+ -
Kinda
CobraA1 5th Apr 2010
The iPad could be called a tablet - except it's
got a phone OS rather than a full OS. And the iPad
lovers keep wanting to convince us it's not a
tablet PC. Because then they'd have to admit it's
not really as powerful as a tablet PC.

Kinda depends on who you ask. Some people think
it's a tablet PC, others think it should have its
own category.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: The future of the magazine, courtesy of the iPad
czei 9th Apr 2010
If anyone thinks the future of magazines is on the iPad, the first
example being touted by Apple, the iPad version of Popular
Science is a complete failure. As far as I can tell they did
everything wrong.

The promise of a tablet-based magazine is that it can deliver
interactive content and advertising tailored to my interests. Here,
not only is the advertising fixed, but you are forced to view page
after page of full page advertising to view articles, even after
paying $5 for the privilege. At least in a magazine you can flip
pages and read whatever parts you want, or look in the index to
see where to find something, none of which is possible with the
iPad version. Why is forcing the reader to view each page in order
considered an improvement over paper which has no such
limitation?

Its simply not interactive, not even in the limited sense in a
magazine where you can flip to a different section. Not even the
*index* is interactive! You can't just tap on the article you want to
read, instead you are forced to turn all of the "pages" in order,
presumably to make sure you see all of the advertisements. The
designers called this feature "the end of endlessness."

Once on a "page", the text is overlaid on top of images making it
hard to read, and both the text blocks and the "page" backgrounds
randomly jump around and change so its impossible to tell if you're
even reading the same article, not that there's much to read. The
designers wax philosophical about their user interface
breakthrough of "flow is the new flip" without stopping to think that
a reader does NOT want the text to be moving underneath them
when they are trying to read!

To add insult to injury, if you touch anywhere on the "page"
thinking its interactive all of the text goes away, and you have to
touch in the same place to bring it back. Fail to tap in the same
place and your text seems to be gone forever. It's maddening to
have the text disappear if you happen to accidentally touch the
screen.

In short, from a reader's perspective it's just a user interface
nightmare. The designer's use of made-up jargon to justify this
travesty is the worst sort of pseudo-design ********, the kind that
makes this reader's skin crawl.

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