Online magazines are taking off!
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It’s surprising it has taken magazines in their traditional paper form so long to realize they could do so much more online. First of all, it’s much easier to incorporate other media modalities. You can incorporate video, audio and fun flash effects into the magazine, making it much more interactive and interesting. You can take readers beyond the text and have them actually experience something. Secondly, it’s much easier to be creative when you’re not confined to paper. The advertisements are maybe the best example of that. Instead of using a static picture, they can now profile their brand with moving images, slideshows, special presentations and so forth. It’s amazing how many possibilities the so-called e-magazines, or e-zines, offer. Recently, a couple intiatives caught my eye, and it seems safe to say that the trend of online versions of real magazines is at last taking off. Let me introduce you to my favorites…
If there was a winner in this category, the award would sure go to the British Luxx Magazine by TimesOnline. It is an appendix focusing on all things luxury. This November edition presents us with the most glamorous and luxurious gifts. The magazine is very attractive and flash made, easy to navigate and read. The articles are of superb quality, as was to be expected of this medium. But the way things are presented are a lot less serious than we are used to. Mouseover effects are everywhere and images are popping up out of nowhere. You can click on pictures to change them and see more of them, and some of them will turn into videos. The ad for Range Rover features a car actually driving by and is furthermore linked to the brand’s website. To turn the page, you click on its corner, and the page will roll over like a real one would. The only difference with paper pages, is that these online equivalents hold much more information.
Our very own Belgian Elle also has an e-mag, which is sent to subscribers twice a month. Subscribing is free, and you can do it by sending a free SMS to Elle's special number. The link to the e-mag will then be sent to your inbox. Elle’s version is a lot lighter than Luxx. It is less focused on articles to read, more on images to see and information to be procured in the most interactive way possible. It is meant to be a fun journalistic snack, to be read after work (or, you know, during!) as a little break. It is also a very animated magazine, with lots of special effects and different media modalities incorporated. In short, it is fun fun fun. What surprised me, and other readers (who can leave their comments in the last pages of the magazine), is that even the ads are more fun like this. They seem to be a part of the concept in a way they can’t achieve on paper.
I hope there’s a nice future for online magazines in store for us, and yet I can’t help but panic just a little bit. If all online magazines are going to be as nice-looking and fun to read as these two, will real, paper magazines become extinct? Of course I don’t want that to happen (though it would be a huge improvement for the environment!). I love going over to the newsstand and loading up on thick, glossy, tangible magazines. Sure, it’s more expensive, but it’s my little luxury, and I would hate to lose it.
xx Steph
