by Nancy Spring, Managing Editor
A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on an interesting webcast titled, “Who Are These People and Why Are They Reading Digital Editions?” It was part of a series of webinars put on by Folio: for publishers who are trying to keep up with the “fast-changing realm of digital magazines.”
I’m not a publisher, of course, I’m an editor, but since I love my job, I want to be sure I’m ready for whatever comes. As the nxtbook media webinar presenters put it, “Technology is evolving faster than we can write about it.” Lucky for me, they also said that there are values and benefits to a magazine, as they define it, and lucky me again, editors will be needed for a long time.
Right now, the digital version of Electric Light & Power gets a lot of compliments, so I think we’re doing a good job there. The print version is still popular with many people because it’s portable. Like me, people often save up their magazine reading for plane rides, and besides that, it gets tiresome staring at the computer screen to read, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be super if you could read a digital version in a more “paper-like” form?
Apparently, you’ll be able to do that any day now, because of something I learned about at the webcast: e-paper.
Those of you who already know all about e-paper are amazed at my ignorance, but this was news to me. It solves all the problems I have with digital versions of anything and makes me feel like Captain Janeway, all at the same time.
I’m not talking about the Etch-A-Sketch type model; this is like a piece of paper. You can hold e-paper in your hand. You can fold it and stuff it in your briefcase or back pocket. It has its own power source and you read it with reflected light, just like the pages of a book when you’re sitting on a comfy sofa with a reading lamp, or with your feet up in front of a sunny window. E-paper will update by plugging into your laptop or from its WiFi connection with whatever you’re in the mood to read.
I gather this revolution’s been predicted for a while, though; articles from years ago claimed e-paper would be taking over any minute. Remember electronic books? They didn’t take off for several reasons. But like DOS-to-Windows, all of a sudden it could happen. That’s what Cambridge, Mass.-based E-Ink thinks, a company that’s created a 14-inch color display with its industry partners that’s nearly as thin as a piece of paper.
I want one, don’t you?
Because of printing costs, the business equation of putting out a magazine is famously skewed. Digital versions of newspapers and magazines have helped us cut down on paper/ink/waste/expense to some extent and with this new, even easier to use distribution method, we’ll save even more.
The important thing is, we’ll still be reading, and I’ll be doing the job I love, putting this magazine together. There are blogs and websites and user-generated content of all kinds, but a carefully edited and beautifully designed magazine is a wonderful thing.
Nancy Spring, managing editor