Tablet Schmablet
I'm not buying into Tablet readers being a good thing for magazines. Books yes,
Magazines, not so much. The concept is just to "inside the magazine box."
The recent promotional videos from Time Inc. and Bonnier have definitely
not sold me on the idea, in fact, they've raised more questions for me.
I will admit, they're "neat" and would be cool to have for a minute, but on the
other hand I don't get it, it's the same old formula, with some neat little buttons.
One of the biggest hang-ups with the traditional magazine has been
distribution and the ability to reach a large enough audience to appease
advertisers. Traditionally it took a lot of money and a lot of resources to
reach a large enough group of people to take them to the next level
(financially). Then along came the internet. Open to everyone, it is a level
playing field with an audience that grows every day. Good content gets
passed around, and passed around fast. Sometimes this "viral" content is
funny, sometimes it's informative, sometimes it's downright stupid. The fact
is, though, the internet has provided a simple, effective and immediate way
to deliver information and content. Early on it had its design limitations,
but many of those have fallen to the wayside with CSS and other evolving
techniques. The box the media lived in for years has become much more
organic and open source.
watered down with meaningless drivel, while magazines publish thoroughly
researched manuscripts and higher quality imagery. Well, there's a lot of
crap on the web. That's a product of its open nature. There are bad
magazines out there too. If there were as many magazines out there as
internet users, there would be an awful lot of bad magazines, too. Anyone with access to the internet has the opportunity to play on the same
field as the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, or Life. A huge bankroll
isn't required to reach a 2010 audience. With that kind of accessibility,
you're bound to have some rubbish. But there is a lot of very respectable
content happening too. Everyone is a journalist. I am. You are. We can all
have a voice, and provide the world with news... Our news. There's good,
there's bad, but with a little digging, there is an infinite archive of
amazing content, growing daily. A tablet style magazine, while more sensible than the occasional flipbook
style we still see today, is still landlocked to the traditional box. As a
user, I need a tablet to read it Either an iPhone or something like a
Bonnier's Mag+ concept (see video below). With our world closing in on 2
billion internet users, that's a huge potential audience for anyone
producing content (censorship in countries like China and language barriers
aside). But a tablet device potentially limits audience much like print did.
So why not deliver important content on the "regular" internet, open to
users of Tablets (when available), PCs, Macs, phones, etc. To me, the bigger
the audience, the more potential. Why the limits? Sure it's a nifty little
device, but there is so much untapped opportunity on the internet. And lets
face it, a large percentage of us already have that internet with us in our
pockets at all times. My biggest issue with a tablet style magazine reader, is that you're still
dealing in interval driven releases. Why the constraint? Newsstand magazines
only get to deliver content based on a regular production schedule. The
internet is organic. A breaking story or idea can be immediately acted upon
and spread to an audience. As a result, we have developed into a "now"
society. This morning's news is old news. All content is becoming this way. Limiting content to a regular production schedule locks you into unnecessary
print-like constraints. I just don't see the general public biting and I
don't think they should have to. They want information as it's happening.
Why limit yourself in an online world without limitations? There's still
plenty of room for researched content.
In a space like the so-called "action sports" with which I've worked closely for many
years, publications are dealing with a young, often dead-broke audience.
Are those readers going to shell out money they could be spending on bikes
and skateboards for a proprietary device to read content they can already see for free
online anyway? I don't think so. Editors have long argued that top-notch photographs
simply look better on a paper, and that the experience of looking at them can't be
replicated on the web. They've said that readers can't tear a web page out and hang
it on their wall. A tablet is a screen as well.
My thoughts on whether or not tablets will save magazines probably won't stop me
from geeking out on and buying the forthcoming Apple device upon its release.
Below is an introduction to Bonnier's "Mag+" device concept, and Time Inc.'s
intro video to a similar concept.
