More Gratuitous Magazine-Industry Bashing

David Card | September 20, 2005, 07:47 AM

This is not a trend. At least I hope not. Optimize for the medium, folks. Don't try to replicate the print experience digitally. There's a reason online news doesn't look like a newspaper, or that iVillage doesn't look like Good Housekeeping or Cosmo.

That is beginning to change, as an increasing number of magazine publishers test "digital editions" -- electronic versions of their publications that replicate every page of the print edition down to the table of contents and the ads...

..Publishers trying digital versions are taking advantage of the interactive format. Playboy, which made its October edition available in a digital format for the first time, featured an article on electronic gaming with a link to game demonstrations. (wow, that's innovation!)...

...The biggest challenge may be persuading people to abandon their preference for turning pages with their own hands, says Demian Brink, an associate media director at Interpublic Group's Martin Agency. "But people used to hate the idea of paying for bottled water," he adds, "and you know where that went."