Time Inc.’s New Digital Magazine Format

For a look at the near future of journalism — exactly what we’ve been discussing — take a look below at  a digital magazine format developed for Time Inc.  and its family of periodicals.

Thanks to professor Janna Anderson for tipping us to this

Here in this slick video we see another innovation built on prediction that readers will use some sort of tablet PC, or perhaps a Kindle-like touch screen, to consume information.  Sounds like a good bet.  Don’t forget that Apple is about to unveil its tablet Mac, which will be something of an enlarged iPhone no doubt well-suited to this magazine format and probably capable of running lots of iPhonish apps.

This gives us a fair picture of how news and information will be delivered. The related question: How will this system make money? How will the producers turn their profits? We see one possibility, first raised this semester by Barry Diller, Daily Beast backer, that truly digital productions will allow far more creative and engaging advertising that can “breathe.” We catch a glimpse of that here.

The other potential is in subscriptions for this sort of value-added design and content (along with customization options). Here’s a story with video from TechCrunch that gives us another look at the magazine format, with some news of market research on users’ willingness to pay fees.  Of course,  “using” the news this way will require an investment from a few hundred to a few thousand bucks in a device, but perhaps that’s a given for always-on consumers.

The Next Big Q:

How much, really, will consumers pay?

The new Time Inc. format, by the way, was developed by The Wonderfactory, a web development company and probably another great place to work. I wonder if the factory needs journalists — or just some creative, hard-working and intrepid college grads. (See links below.)

Take another look at the about page for TechCrunch. Scroll down. How old are the people running this operation? Notice the ads? My first-blush response is to note that here we see the blending of the old and the new. We have a set of young entrepreneurs creating a successful 4-year-old blog and business, but they are doing it based on the most fundamental element of journalism: They are providing credible news that their audience needs.

As always, the people who actually dig up and interpret the news are the key cog in the process. Be innovative — and be a hard-working, curious journalist. Do that, and good things will happen.

As for Jobs

Click here for the Time Inc. page for college students and recent grads.

The Wonderfactory has internships and some jobs. See page here.

TechCrunch provides a jobs board (another way it earns income).  Not many listings are for entry-level people, but here’s an interesting one for free-lance writers to work for soon-to-morph AOL.  Not everyone is jazzed about the switch, really, from AOL to Aol. See these thoughts. Then again, what if your free-lancing takes you somewhere good?

watch?v=5SeZBmwMtHw

Advertisement