Posted by Chris Aylen (Senior Creative)
At Zone, we work on many editorial projects for a number of clients, which ties in well with my own editorial interests. One of the few luxuries I allow myself each month is to pick up a large number of magazines to read. At present, I visit the newsagent to get my fix, but that might be changing in the future.
Finding the magazines I like is one thing, but taking the time to properly digest their contents is another. Quite often, I end up picking up the next month's issue before finishing the current edition. As a result of this, my flat is filled with bookshelves of partially read magazines. What I really need is some form of holding for all of this content in one portable device. This is where Swedish media house Bonnier have stepped in and presented a digital concept that may change the way we read magazines.
Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.
Bonnier's Mag+ idea isn't the first of its kind – you may have seen the Sports Illustrated tablet presentation already – but it captures the true essence of consuming magazines. If I'm reading a magazine, I don't necessarily want distractions in the form of video or audio content: I can already see that on the web. On the negative side, voluntarily burning more screen-displayed data into my retinas doesn't fill me with excitement.
Apple's freshly announced iPad didn't floor me with its initial premise (the lack of a camera, video outputs and USB or FireWire ports surprised me), but with possibilities such as Mag+, it's only a matter of time before all of my half-read magazines end up in the recycling pile.