At the American Association of Advertising Agencies‘ Transformation Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson addressed the crowd and waxed lyrically about the possibilities for the currently troubled magazine industry via Apple’s iPad (and other tablet platforms.) And while industry leaders are quick to hail the new technology as the savior, Anderson sounded mired in the print world, claiming that online versions of magazines lacked the “coherence and majesty” of their print versions.
Where to begin?
Writing for Mediaweek, Jim Cooper reports:
Wired staffers have been working to create a tablet version of the title for six months, with the goal of having it ready in May.
“We’ve been looking for a way to do it better, and the good news is that I think we found it,” said Anderson.
Presently, online versions of magazines lose “the coherence and majesty of the [printed] medium,” said Anderson. Tablets, on the other hand, offer impressive functionality, such as 360-degree views and iPhone-like screen sliding, plus collapsing and layering — all of which make the user experience vastly more compelling than the Web, he said.
Additionally, the success of the iPhone, Kindle and the emergence of cloud computing have paved the way for devices that are less powerful and lighter with a longer battery life than standard laptops, Anderson said. The iPad is just such a device, and it will sell millions of units in its first month and tens of millions in the following months and years, he predicted.
“It will take less than 10 years for it to become mainstream,” he said.
Also revolutionary from an editorial and design perspective is that magazine staffers — now editing for print and the Web in separate work flows — will be able to edit for print and tablets simultaneously.
What to make of this? Read the rest at Mediaite.
