I must admit, when I first saw this story,
I was fairly sure it was some sort of April Fool. The idea of video within a
hard copy of a magazine seems incredibly futuristic. Of course, if you have
been converted to viewing your magazines on an iPad then you will be used to
moving images and interactive features. But in an actual printed magazine? It
sounds like the enchanted newspapers in Harry Potter and yet it is apparently a
first for women’s magazine, Marie Claire.
Several thousand copies of the October edition of
the magazine will apparently contain the 45-second advertisement for a
fragrance from Dolce and Gabbana, which will use a special chip embedded in the
paper to play both video and music when the page is opened.
So what does this sort of technology mean for
print media? Personally, I find it a really exciting development. It gets
incredibly wearing hearing the old ‘print is dead’ mantra being repeated and
this sort of technology has real potential to bring the experience of reading a
printed copy of a newspaper or magazine into the twenty-first century. Those championing digital media have often argued that print media is old-fashioned and out of touch with today's audiences. However, S.E. Bird claims that "the new digital environment has jolted traditional journalism out of its conservative complacency" and this development is a really interesting example of combining digital and print media to create a new reading experience. It has the potential to bring print media up to date.
Of course, as with any new technology, I can
imagine that there may be all sorts of teething problems with this technology.
It would obviously make the production cost (and I assume therefore the sales
cost) higher for print media which included such technology. However, since
people already seem happy to pay higher prices for (what they perceive to be)
higher quality publications – one just has to look at LOVE magazine, which is
popular despite its comparatively high cost of £6 per issue.
After producing a presentation for my Journalism
Practices module which concluded that it wasn't as simple as digital media
replacing print journalism, I really feel that this development helps to
support that argument. This is a perfect example of a way in which print
journalism can change and incorporate new technology to move with the times,
without giving up on the printing press altogether.
Hi Sarah. Interesting concept. Do you think that advertisers are gaining increasing power over print journalism?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would agree that advertisers are gaining power, since print journalism has always relied on both cost price and advertising for its income. The one thing that I do feel is increasing advertisers' influence is the rise of free publications which rely solely on advertising for income, such as Metro and Stylist magazine.
DeleteI think advertisers probably have a similar relationship with print sources as before, after all, the revenue streams for print media haven't changed much. In fact when you look at ABC figures for the first half of 2012, some consumer titles are actually increasing their circulation figures and taking more money from consumers. Admittedly most of them are heading south (though not nearly as badly as news titles)but Marie Claire have increased circulation by 1.7 compared the the first half of 2011 and others are doing well too - take a look
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/49860
I think the video ad is cool, but pretty gimicky. I reckon magazines like Love which people buy more for its tangible glossiness need to focus more on having different content online and in their print editions, so people will be forced to go to both sources for the full experience...
Kate, I think you're right in stressing the importance of the idea of having different content online and in print, and to be honest I think that that will be the key for the survival of print. I was particularly interested to hear about Luke Lewis' ideas for this regarding NME Online. I do think, however, that looking at new things to do with print media (such as this) will help publications to edge ahead in what is already a difficult market.
DeleteI think the concept of having a video within a glossy magazine is a perfect way of marrying print and digital media. Allowing them both to work together to sell each other, I think is an interesting and exciting concept that many publications may buy into. As I work for a fashion magazine myself. I think that although, yes it would be quite costly to do something like this the benefits of it may be huge. As it has been suggested before, many advertisers would rather advertise in print than online, and so this concept allows them to bring their online advertising to print.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah. You're right, Stylist Magazine are a perfect example and run some great reader competitions on a regular basis with products from advertisers; even the wallpaper on their website is an advert for a sponsor http://www.stylist.co.uk/
ReplyDeleteI think this kind of advertising works perfectly in magazines and I also really love the idea of interactive advertising as it is another way to engage the reader.
My only concern would be when it comes to newspapers. I completely understand and agree with the need for advertising and sponsors in print, so long as the the adverts themselves do not interfere or detract from the news articles themselves, like this example I found on the internet taken from The Sunday Times of India, where there had been poor placement of an airline advertisment next to an article about the outbreak of flu on a US flight. http://puchoo.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/toi1.jpg