Open up the Sept. 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly and CBS TV stars will greet you through high-quality video and audio. It’s true! The actors will appear on a paper-thin video player, packaged within a print ad spread for CBS and Pepsi. This “VIP” (video-to-print) technology invites readers to interact and watch five different videos—straight from the page. The video player will appear in Entertainment Weekly’s Annual Fall TV Preview Issue, but will only be sent to subscribers in Los Angeles and New York. Read the press release or the AdAge article.
Industry buzz advertising, interactive, print, technology, video
Behind the Chair, a website for stylists and the salon trade, is bringing its online brand to print with the launch of a quarterly magazine, Behind the Chair On Paper. According to FOLIO, 75,000 copies of the 172-page first issue will be printed and distributed in July and mailed along with an educational DVD. Three more issues will come out this year.
“We’ve created a magazine that is so radically different than anything else in the market that we’re being rewarded for it,” Mary Rector-Gable, founder of Illinois-based Behindthechair.com, told FOLIO. “The content mix, feel of the design and vibe of the attitude of our magazine is not by accident—it’s based on nine years of watching how our members consume content.”
New launches launch, magazine, niche, online, print, salon, stylists, trade
Ever heard of QR codes? If you’re in publishing, you might be familiar with them very soon. It’s a new technology that’s being used in Japanese and European publications and is making its way to the U.S. How does it work? Get ready for this: a two-dimensional barcode-like image (like the one seen here) is printed on a magazine or newspaper page, and can be read by cell phone cameras, instantly linking a reader to a website through a mobile browser. It lets the publication track what’s important to readers and when, and it allows the readers to access additional (and sometimes exclusive) content. Advertisers can use it too, linking readers to buying information or special offers, and giving businesses a better way to track print response rates. Read the MediaShift blog about QR codes here.
Industry buzz barcode, linking, mobile, online, phones, print, QR codes
Apps aside, will the iPhone become the new digital medium for magazine content? Perhaps iTunes will become a virtual newsstand for magazines, bringing the newest issues straight through to your iPhone. In a recent article in AdAge, publishers say the idea isn’t so far-fetched. “iTunes is a great marketplace for entertainment, movies, music, TV, even books. Magazines are actually conspicuous in their absence,” Ryan McConville, publisher of Bauer Teen Magazines, told AdAge.
If you think it would be hard—virtually impossible—to translate a magazine spread onto such a small screen, don’t blink. Companies are already hard at work figuring out a way to do just that. One such company, called Bite Sized Candy, is working with Condé Nast and Hearst to provide magazine content to the iPhone via iTunes—and they’re looking at launching the solution this summer. Can’t wait to see it!
Industry buzz apps, Conde Nast, content, digital, Hearst, iPhone, iTunes, print
