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News from the Magosphere February 3rd ’09

February 3, 2009 in News round-up | No comments

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Esquire UK features plasticine clothes
Very lucky with the timing, as Morph’s creator died recently and reruns have been everywhere. Lovely idea gets its rewards

Fanzines refuse to die
“What’s going on here is what academics describe as ‘slippage of the auratic’”- in other words, people like things

Gallery launches magazine for “the creative and curious”
Looks interesting/fun

Another iPhone magazine launches
Still looks crap

Music magazine goes online, then online spins off into print
Next up: TV series creates radio spin-off, radio retreats into Morse Code

British firm tried to buy Google’s Print Ad service
Good publicity either way

Inside a small independent Japanese magazine company
Their name means “two beers”, which is enough for me

Harper’s Bazaar gets bigger
Getting ready for Love

Intern drunk-dials editor, gets arrested mid rant
Editor gets even

Crisis watch

Arthur refolds, puts last issue online
Two writers refuse to release the digital rights of their work, demand cash for copies of their unedited text. “Remember: these yokels are self-proclaimed potheads, so buyer beware, etc”
UPDATE: Ralph points out: “Arthur isn’t officially folded, they just don’t have enough money to print the current issue… also, they never pay writers – the reviewers just don’t want their writing used unless printed first.”

Magazine goes up for sale on eBay
Stunt finds private buyer, magazine survives

Vanity Fair runs same cover image twice
Sorry Annie, you’ve been replaced by your own back catalogue

News from the Magosphere 16th January ’09

January 16, 2009 in News round-up | 2 comments

Esquire puts a hole in Obama’s face
For $250,000, who wouldn’t? There could be some neat creative solutions made using this alongside the cover image in the future, like a Mad magazine-style trapdoor; though knowing Esquire US, there won’t be. A pull tab for BMW is to follow. “I think you can smell a gimmick a mile away,” says the VP of Discovery channel. I’m sniffing one from here

Papercamp highlights the future of tech and paper
Less gimmicky, more geeky. Originated by Dopplr’s Matt Jones; some of the ideas can be seen here. There’s a New York-flavoured edition coming up next month

Ads in PDFs scrapped by Adobe
Between them, Techcrunch and Nxtbook have it about right. However, I’m not convinced by the phrase “A true digital magazine is designed to be an elegant reading experience. While some are better than others, most all are more engaging than the PDF format” – PDF Mags begs to differ

Taschen’s London store gears up for a warehouse sale
Takes place on 23-25th January. Plenty of pulp mag books with slightly scuffed covers on offer on day one, fewer bargains by the weekend I’ll bet

Adbusting protests against Photoshop use
Fabulous in-joke fun

And the obligatory crisis roundup:

Jeans brand scraps magazine advertising
“Magazines will always be relevant. We are just trying something new this season.” And cheaper. Goes instead for marketing on its own website and instore

Arthur goes into hibernation
The community funding only postponed the end. The blog has been busy since, though. If you prefer a fictional version of this story…

…Bad Idea creates miniseries about print and the money pit
Occasionally amusing. “How about Kabuki theatre for the disabled?”

Funniest line of the magazine crisis so far
Though I’m not sure it’s true. But who cares?

News from the magosphere 27th Nov ’08

November 27, 2008 in News round-up | No comments

Esquire‘s 7 greatest stories, now available online
They’re all well worth reading / lamenting the state of the world today, etc

Swedish magazine editors have plastic surgery for a story
One had his nose removed, then put back with the word “stet” stitched underneath

Personalise your inflight magazine
Right now, a gimmick – but not too far off a POD magazine future

Model artificially aged for Vogue shoot
All done through lighting, angles, make-up, posture and costume. Photoshop, know your limits

Teen Vogue creates a buy-nothing popup store
Clever use of branding, advertisers. Everyone wins

Yet another new newspaper supplement
I launches in a marketplace that already has T, FW, WSJ, ST. The future of print is acronyms inside other print

People think digital magazines are green
Though as Tony points out, are they really? Reminds me of another survey I saw a year or so ago, about how uncoated paper is seen to be less harmful to the environment than glossy paper. The reality is that it often isn’t

American Apparel has a rather good online newsstand
Some of the best independent press celebrated alongside pants (thanks Mike)

News from the magosphere 25th September ’08

September 25, 2008 in News round-up | 2 comments

Mygazines starts to reveal its monetising strategy
No news on if the lawyers tracked them down. Meanwhile on the legal side of the fence…

Publishers to give away 50 million digital magazines
Zinio are behind this; a rather smart way for them to get the lead over their rivals, but will it get many readers? Speaking of digital, did “iPhone magazine” PMc ever launch? It’s fashion week, but it isn’t in the iTunes app store as promised yet…

Yet another version of that Obama cover
How come almost all the parodies are funnier than the original?

Wired gives a play-by-play on how they edit an article
I’ve suffered at the hands of their editors before

ITV becomes digital newsagent
That’s the leading UK commercial TV broadcaster, for non-Britishers. They also own Friends Reunited, which is what nostalgic stalkers in England used to use before Facebook; this diginewsstand adds one more random bullet to their scattergun web offering

Yet another new luxury fashion supplement
Washington Post arrives late to the party, hunts around for any uneaten vol au vents

Taschen publishes entire reprint of Arts and Architecture
Now there’s a trend that could get interesting/expensive. They should open up the choice of their next reprint to the audience (I’d probably vote for Nest)

Life magazine resurfaces yet again, as a social photo archive website
If we’ve seen less than 3% of what they have, there are going to be some amazing unseen images in there. I just wish they’d donate them to the nation / Library of Congress on a similar non-commercial clause that NASA uses. Set the archive free!

Main distributor of foreign magazines in Japan goes bust
Via Jean Snow

Esquire e-cover hacked. To death
My review of the full anniversary issue coming soon

That long-awaited Esquire e-paper cover

September 8, 2008 in Clever ideas, technology | 16 comments

Even more underwhelming than I thought…

If this is the future, where’s my jetpack?

News from the magosphere 02/07/08

July 2, 2008 in News round-up | No comments

(Plenty to catch up on – a few weeks ago, I married my lovely partner and moved to the USA, hence the pause. Onwards!)

Time Out Beijing closed by the Chinese government
Officials get pre-Olympic jitters. Read a recent copy here

Esquire puts celebs in a large box to celebrate anniversary
Pretentiousness contest ensues; magazine still hasn’t decided what to do with the result

New French magazine mixes videogames with fashion
Looking forward to seeing a copy (via Jean Snow). Not to be mistaken with magazines making online games for readers

Former Sleazenation ed to make ethical magazine for Christian Aid
The first phase is already online

Conde Nast finally admits to Wired UK
Technology may know no borders, but its reporting isn’t. For an amusing read, see what happened the first time around (pre-Nast)

Print-on-demand isn’t aimed at designers
Boico responds to my previous post. Printcasting seems to prove his point

New magazine features guest commenter throughout
Described by one site as “like a marked up PDF”. I’ve seen magazines be meta-commented before, but not quite like this; fun

How Domus was redesigned
Detailed look behind the curtain (via MagCulture)

Dutch DIY store creates female-aimed customer mag
Companion piece for Woodworking for Women, perhaps

Unconventional wedding magazine tries the UGC route
Be still my sceptic heart

Free counter-culture mag asks readers for $20,000
And gets it. I rather like Arthur, glad to see it keep the wolves away for another month