Esquire: September 2008 issue to have video cover
Fact: Dictionary.com says that a magazine is usually bound in paper.
Fact: Esquire thinks that sucks.
So their upcoming September issue, which celebrates their 75th year, is going to be a little different - that is, the cover's going to be electronic.
No word on exactly what it'll look like yet, but the digital cover will comes with its own battery pack, so we're imagining something like those hologram folders from school, except the image will move on its own.
They're only making 100,000 copies of the edition with the digital cover, so you might have to scramble to get one.
On an only somewhat related note, wouldn't it be so funny if Vogue did one with Caroline actually jumping? Yes.
Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years, Mr. Granger said. I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.
Pointing to the prototype sitting on a conference room table, Mr. Granger said, The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.
The company that produced the cover, E Ink, has a track record of innovation its technology is used in Amazon.coms e-book device, the Kindle. E Ink, a private company based in Cambridge, Mass., counts Hearst, Esquires parent, as a major shareholder.
In 2000 or so, we went to Cambridge to see if they could demonstrate the technology, Mr. Granger said. They were doing store displays, so it was premature for a magazine.
Two years ago, at a Hearst management retreat, Mr. Granger again raised the idea. This time it would be possible, he was told, if Hearst invested seed money to create a battery small enough to fit in a magazine.
This is really the 1.0 version, said Kevin OMalley, Esquires publisher. Imagine when the consumer walks by a newsstand and sees that it is alive.
Digital technology holds the promise of making the dissemination of information much easier and cheaper no paper, no trucks but this experiment by Esquire was the opposite.
The whole chain had to be reinvented, said Peter Griffin, the deputy editor. The interesting thing is it has almost nothing to do with the normal way of putting out a magazine.
First Esquire had to make a six-figure investment to hire an engineer in China to develop a battery small enough to be inserted in the magazine cover. The batteries and the display case are manufactured and put together in China. They are shipped to Texas and on to Mexico, where the device is inserted by hand into each magazine. The issues will then be shipped via trucks, which will be refrigerated to preserve the batteries, to the magazines distributor in Glazer, Ky.
We are trying to combine a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process, Mr. Granger said.
All of this, of course, is expensive. Which is why it was necessary for Esquire to find a sponsor. In stepped Ford Motor, which will have an advertisement on the inside of the cover that will use the same technology to promote its new minivan-sport utility vehicle, the Flex.
We wanted the marketing plan for this vehicle to include motion as much as possible, said Usha Raghavachari, communications manager for S.U.V.s for Ford North America Marketing. We had a desire to make our marketing launch as unique as the vehicle. This makes our print plan a little more energizing.
Esquire has exclusive use of E Inks technology for use in print through 2009, and Mr. Granger said he hopes to come up with new ideas for it. This is probably just a limited view of its use, he said.
The electronic cover will be used in only 100,000 copies that go to newsstands its overall circulation is about 720,000.
Pointing to the prototype sitting on a conference room table, Mr. Granger said, The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.
The company that produced the cover, E Ink, has a track record of innovation its technology is used in Amazon.coms e-book device, the Kindle. E Ink, a private company based in Cambridge, Mass., counts Hearst, Esquires parent, as a major shareholder.
In 2000 or so, we went to Cambridge to see if they could demonstrate the technology, Mr. Granger said. They were doing store displays, so it was premature for a magazine.
Two years ago, at a Hearst management retreat, Mr. Granger again raised the idea. This time it would be possible, he was told, if Hearst invested seed money to create a battery small enough to fit in a magazine.
This is really the 1.0 version, said Kevin OMalley, Esquires publisher. Imagine when the consumer walks by a newsstand and sees that it is alive.
Digital technology holds the promise of making the dissemination of information much easier and cheaper no paper, no trucks but this experiment by Esquire was the opposite.
The whole chain had to be reinvented, said Peter Griffin, the deputy editor. The interesting thing is it has almost nothing to do with the normal way of putting out a magazine.
First Esquire had to make a six-figure investment to hire an engineer in China to develop a battery small enough to be inserted in the magazine cover. The batteries and the display case are manufactured and put together in China. They are shipped to Texas and on to Mexico, where the device is inserted by hand into each magazine. The issues will then be shipped via trucks, which will be refrigerated to preserve the batteries, to the magazines distributor in Glazer, Ky.
We are trying to combine a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process, Mr. Granger said.
All of this, of course, is expensive. Which is why it was necessary for Esquire to find a sponsor. In stepped Ford Motor, which will have an advertisement on the inside of the cover that will use the same technology to promote its new minivan-sport utility vehicle, the Flex.
We wanted the marketing plan for this vehicle to include motion as much as possible, said Usha Raghavachari, communications manager for S.U.V.s for Ford North America Marketing. We had a desire to make our marketing launch as unique as the vehicle. This makes our print plan a little more energizing.
Esquire has exclusive use of E Inks technology for use in print through 2009, and Mr. Granger said he hopes to come up with new ideas for it. This is probably just a limited view of its use, he said.
The electronic cover will be used in only 100,000 copies that go to newsstands its overall circulation is about 720,000.
Wow, reading it I was really excited. Then seeing what its actually going to look like, I was a little underwhelmed. Amazing technology and I'm sure it will get better pretty fast as the concept is exciting.
Very cool idea, but aren't they really just delaying the inevitable? Electronic media will replace the majority of such media.
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