Sunday Afternoon

So I'm going to challenge myself to get back into posting on a regular basis. Life has been a little hectic for me recently but hopefully it will be slowing down soon.

Today I want to talk about magazines. I currently subscribe to two, Fortune and Motor Trend. This runs me about $30-$35 a year, depending on the renewal rates. I receive 32 in total each year and I enjoy every last word of each one. And as much as I enjoy them, I'm still not certain the medium can continue as is.

Now, I'm a tech junkie. I love new gadgets with interesting new media platforms and I'm especially intrigued by the new tablet computer segment. Mostly I'm interested in what media companies are going to be able to do with a product like the tablet computer. I've seen some very basic ideas presented that range from a wall of text to just an article with an embedded flash video. This concept works well for blogs and news article hosted on web pages, but it doesn't quite capture the idea of a magazine.

I enjoy reading my magazine on the go. It easy to find the article I want, read the editorial, see the pictures as they relate to the material, and easily flip from story to story. The magazine itself isn't a very complicated media format. The tablet could render websites just fine. Media companies could charge people for content, as the Wall Street Journal does, and just call it a day. Just let the magazine fall to the wayside of media formats. But with this new computer segment comes a new opportunity to look at content packaging and allows media companies to present the magazine in an entirely new way.

Take a look at this concept from the Sports Illustrated staff. This, in my mind, is a great starting point for the "magazine of the future". The media format will need to evolve with technology and, if Sports Illustrated's example is any indication of the evolutionary path, we are in for a rich future of the magazine.