Bonnier publishing, a privately held Swedish media conglomerate, which—along with books and newspapers— puts out such magazines as Parenting, Popular Science, Field & Stream, Working Mother, and Saveur, has just released their R & D video titled Mag +.
Those who think about, obsess over…. or are mildly interested in—the ongoing conversation regarding the Future of Journalism (hell, yes, we capitalize that phrase), will enjoy it.
It’s been out for about about 24 hours and is already causing FOJ types to go into Twitter overdrive.
And for good reason. Although much of the technology is still in the fantasy stage, it has a lot of intriguing thinking behind it. (Paper magazines take note.)
Meanwhile, Esquire and GQ have come up with iPhone versions.
Not that anyone asked me, but Esquire and GQ have a smart notion in terms of monetizing their content. Esquire plans to charge $2.99 per month. Good idea. People may not pay to get online what they can get for free, but we are all now very well conditioned to buy inexpensive Aps. It’s a short jump to a subscription as long as the monthly charge feels (however illusory the feeling) AP based. In other words, at the moment, we are more willing pay for the technology and the delivery system that we want, than we are willing to fork over $$ for content.
PS: Note to WSJ: Yes, many of us who are devoted to news reporting will actually pay for content too, but don’t try to charge us twice. Such moves will cause us to harbor resentments.
If I am ever observed by anyone reading GQ’s “monetized content” – which is a phrase I love, by the way – on an iPhone, be sure to shoot me.
I’d have gotten a guy who (a) shaved and (b) sounded like he gave a bit more of a shit to “host” the video. Whenever I work with guys like this I end up wanting to kill them. Also I think this format has real problem in getting advertising in the readers’ face. Without crap like pop-ups or forced viewing of 15 second ad animations prior to accessing what you want to see – which, had they been featured on this video would have killed the mood of understated-yet-know-it-all “cool” – I just don’t think this is as good of a deal for advertisers as traditional mags.