Digital Publications
A couple of years ago I wrote a post speculating on the future of magazines. Since then, there have been a number of steps forward in this area. The Kindle and the Nook have shown that there is a market here, but there hasn't been anything that has truly moved the publishing industry into the digital realm. At the time of writing that post, I joked with my friends that Apple will probably do what they did with the iPod: Wait for everyone else to try and fail, then swoop in with a killer digital reader.
After watching this digital Sports Illustrated demo, it would seem like we're about to see the next step in digital publications. The example above shows some good ideas, such the ability to switch between text or images focused layouts, but again, there is still nothing truly ground breaking here that would make me cancel my print magazine subscriptions or stop going to the newsagent.
The problem I find is that we are still trying to reproduce a printed magazine experience on a screen. Just as some of the first mp3 players were shaped like portable CD players, and CD's are a digital version of a record, digital publications are still trying to imitate their printed cousins. That these digital magazines contain 'pages' is just an example.
This isn't anything new. It was almost 100 years of co-existence before scribes were completely replaced with movable type and the printing press due to our fondness and nostalgia for hand written type. And even then, the first lot of moveable type looked like hand written type. Taking this into account, it's more than likely that we are in for another grace period where print and digital publications will co-exist, even to the point where, like records and mp3s today, the digital version may even be bundled with the tangible version.
Still, it's exciting times for the publishing industry, and while I can't see myself giving up my print addiction any time soon, I'll be more than happy to pick up a new digital one.
Filed under //
interactive
publication
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