Time Inc. demos tablet-friendly magazine concept

AppleInsider ^ | Wednesday, December 2, 2009 | Brian Garner

[SunkenCiv]

Time Inc. released a video walkthrough as well as a working model of its digital magazine format designed for touchscreen tablets.

Less than a month after competitor Conde Nast revealed that a digital version of Wired magazine would be available by the middle of next year, publisher Time Inc. released information Wednesday on its plans for making digital magazines a reality. Time announced that Sports Illustrated would be the first magazine to undergo the digital transition, and produced not only a video walkthrough but also a working example.

...various features and capabilities including: multi-touch controls, live links and sports scores, multimedia content and advertisements, and sharing though social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

AppleInsider reported several weeks ago that rumors had been swirling over the creation of plans for a multi-publisher iTunes-like digital store for selling magazines. While both the Time Inc. and Conde Nast demos look similar in presentation and capability, it is unclear whether they will share a common format...

The New York Times officially released the Times Skimmer, an application designed to make it easier to read the paper on different screen sizes and browsers. The Times claims that it provides online readers with the layout and experience of paging though an actual newspaper.

[SunkenCiv]

Uh-oh, who has the Dinosaur Media Deathwatch list? Oh wait, I found ‘em.

[rlmorel]

Hey. I could take a stinking dog turd and put it in the cabinet of an old television with no tube, but...it is still a stinking dog turd.

I don’t care how much they polish themselves, Time and the rest of their media brethren are still just stinking dog turds.

[Secret Agent Man]

And God forbid if whatever pointing device hits an ad or hyperlink to an ad, they’ll be expanding in your face all over the screen making navigation that much more frustrating.

[Frantzie]

LOL! Sort of my thoughts exactly but not quite as....poetic. Maybe they can put Obama on every cover every day versus the current twice a month. Nobody wants what Time is selling.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Given that I’ve never seen a tablet computer in a doctors waiting room, it’s difficult to imagine where their market would be.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s not as if doctors will *notice* right away...

[RayChuang88]

Despite what everyone thinks of Time, Inc. being a card-carrying member of the MSM (indeed, Time pioneered much of the idea of the news magazine itself), that demo shows with real interactivity (and the ability to show a LOT more information than the printed version), we are previewing with that demo from Time, Inc. what the MSM will be involved in heavily 8-10 years from now as they move from mostly "dead tree" distribution to digital distribution.

A newspaper like USA Today would be spectacular in a true interactive format designed for a tablet computer or touchscreen laptop.

[SunkenCiv]

That’ll be nice for ‘em, considering they’re up next on the “all those trees you cut and print on produce global warming” fascist hit list.