Related Sections: Future Tech
Entertainment Weekly adding video ads to its printed magazine
Entertainment Weekly is adding full-motion video with audio next month to its printed page. Sound crazy? The cellphone-sized, wafer-thin screens activate when the reader gets to that page, and will feature characters from prime time television and ads for soft drinks at a considerable mark-up, according to the Financial Times:
One magazine industry executive with knowledge of the technology estimated that running one video ad in 100,000 copies would cost in the low seven-figure range. That would translate into a cost of several dollars per copy. By contrast, a full-page colour ad in Entertainment Weekly costs about 9 cents a page per copy.The movie is being compared to the 75th anniversary of Esquire, which featured the magazine world's first e-ink cover (pictured above). The big question here, however, is whether these video ads will represent a sustainable new stream of revenue for magazines, simply annoy the hell out of customers or prove to be a one-time buzz-generating trick, such as Esquire's e-ink cover.
Financial Times, via Dvorak
By Giggity at 2:46 PM ON 08/20/09
Well, it was only a matter of time before this happened.
Just wonder how that cost will affect the average person. Does the advertiser pass that cost to the customer? probably.
Still cool though...didnt they try something like this years ago with comics?
By kmiahali at 3:23 PM ON 08/20/09
By Alisa at 3:44 PM ON 08/20/09
Good thing my EW subscription runs out next week...
By Harry Potter at 4:49 PM ON 08/20/09
I would love to see this. Too bad it's only a portion of the circulation. I would purchase this in a retail store just for proof of concept.
BTW, original article can be read in full here:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5cd04e14-8cf4-11de-a540-00144feabdc0.html
By randy rittenhouse at 6:12 PM ON 08/20/09
i would like to get a copy of this... i imagine the video will be some lame crap but hey its a video in a magazine...
By murc at 9:48 PM ON 08/20/09
This sounds like its a one time thing, to generate some buzz.
I'm personally waiting for color e-ink, THAT will revolutionize the magazine/newspaper business.
Then people could have subscriptions to papers and mags and have them instantly downloaded (using wifi) onto their displays, making the subscriptions cheaper, since they no longer need a printing press.
The Amazon Kindle DX is currently the closest thing to that, I'm hoping that in a year or two we will see some color e-ink displays emerging. :)
By Steel Fox at 5:41 PM ON 08/21/09
I smell an instructable useing the guts of this comming out in the near future. I wonder what you might be able to repurpose one of those ads into....
By Cait at 2:20 PM ON 08/22/09
Great. Just what we need. More disposable technology. All I can see when I look at these things is a pile of them in a landfill.
By Anonymous at 12:58 AM ON 08/24/09
this is some harry potter kind of stuff good where having a technological advancement that is going to be sold like so many other futuristic things out their that are not on the market. Anyway atleast a magazine is a start.
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