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News from the Magosphere February 3rd ’09

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

morph_2

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Sorry Annie, you’ve been replaced by your own back catalogue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?

Time-ly

November 5, 2008 in Clever ideas | 1 comment

Folio reports that Time has planned a march on its rivals by sending its latest issue to the printer a day early. It left at 9am this morning, and will appear on newsstands tomorrow, to most people’s surprise at having a glossy magazine react so fast.

A very smart move; today, all the newspapers have been snapped up in my local grocery store. This issue’s a keeper.

Though I wonder how much planning they did ahead of, ahem, time? I’m sure covers for both possible results were ready, short only of a cover line from the acceptance speech. But did they ask columnists to write two versions of their opinions? Did they have a third, “It’s 2000 all over again”, cover planned too? Will last night’s events fill the first 8 pages of an issue that otherwise would have worked for a McCain win too? (“The Election: A Review”, etc)

Either way, looking forward to it. What a night.

Bonus link: Folio’s Covers of the Campaign, complete with four rather silly fakes. My favourite: L’Optimum, for being so distinctive, so unlike any of the others, so… French.

And… if you think that’s impressive, South Park had a full episode broadcast about Obama’s victory, including quotes from the speeches, last night. Watch “About Last Night” here.