March 24, 2010

Re-Imagining the Magazine

As a member of the public relations community, we all need to stay up to date on changes in the media horizon. Though the incorporation of these changes to our local or regional media may be years away in some cases, we need to all be thinking of ways to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. As Jennifer Moore addressed in the meeting on Tuesday, there may be different pieces of information we should all include in our press releases to make us more attractive to journalists who make the decision on which release to pick up and use.

Taking The Tablet: 15 Ways Publishers Are Re-Imagining The Magazine
Magazine publishers were already beginning to imagine how tablet devices might reboot their fortunes long before the April 3 retail date for Apple’s iPad. Such gadgets promise a new wave of tablet magazines. But it’s early days - our trawl of 15 examples includes many that are merely concepts - so consider them preferred bets, from show-off publishers, on what the magazine might become.

While each takes advantage of the touch screen to, at the least, replicate the tactile experience of flicking through a magazine, visions for the digital mag vary somewhat, coalescing around five key trends…

•Print shovelware: Those that merely recreate the page-turning experience on the digital screen.
•Interactive editions: They’re recognisably a magazine, but navigation and animation really take advantage of what is essentially a screen.
•Motion-heavy mags: Co-produced by film makers, they’re as much a video narrative as a magazine.
•Web shells: Lazy apps that merely funnel through a publication’s existing website.
•Live info: Divorced from monthly print cycle, an article can take advantage of the real-time web.

Read article here

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