DA
07-06-2009, 01:06 PM
Late last May, the surprising news was announced that Steve Harris, the original founder of Electronic Gaming Monthly back in 1988, had reacquired the rights to the shuttered magazine with the intention of re-launching it later this year. Now in an interview with Publishing Executive (via Bitmob), Harris has divulged a few surprising new details of what the new EGM will look like -- and while just the fact that EGM is re-launching is newsworthy enough, this is particularly interesting in that Harris evidently plans to invent video paper.
In the interview, Harris explains how the new EGM will be more than just the revival of a traditional magazine:
First and foremost, we're planning to incorporate digital content within the magazine. This includes professionally-produced video, audio and other types of content. We're also going to make this content fully transportable. ... There's now a heightened consumer interest in the transportability of information and using applications to do things like read content on an iPhone. We benefit not only from the technology but from the consumer's willingness to use it. The new Electronic Gaming Monthly will let you take your magazine and its content from print to computer to wireless devices -- even to your television -- as well as enable subscribers and single-copy purchasers to enhance that experience every step of the way. We are embracing that reality [and] will enable it and encourage it.
Okay... but just how does Harris plan to include digital content with a print publication? "The digital content will be accessible by some directly from the pages of the magazine while other content will be delivered via a digital device included with each issue (that, as I said before, could be used with computers, televisions, etc.)," Harris said. Exactly how Harris plans to include digital content in the pages of a magazine wasn't explained, but we really, really hope it's done through some newfangled Minority Report-style superpaper.
The new EGM is planned to launch before the end of the year, so hopefully some clarification on how exactly this intriguing new multimedia strategy will work will come along soon.
In the interview, Harris explains how the new EGM will be more than just the revival of a traditional magazine:
First and foremost, we're planning to incorporate digital content within the magazine. This includes professionally-produced video, audio and other types of content. We're also going to make this content fully transportable. ... There's now a heightened consumer interest in the transportability of information and using applications to do things like read content on an iPhone. We benefit not only from the technology but from the consumer's willingness to use it. The new Electronic Gaming Monthly will let you take your magazine and its content from print to computer to wireless devices -- even to your television -- as well as enable subscribers and single-copy purchasers to enhance that experience every step of the way. We are embracing that reality [and] will enable it and encourage it.
Okay... but just how does Harris plan to include digital content with a print publication? "The digital content will be accessible by some directly from the pages of the magazine while other content will be delivered via a digital device included with each issue (that, as I said before, could be used with computers, televisions, etc.)," Harris said. Exactly how Harris plans to include digital content in the pages of a magazine wasn't explained, but we really, really hope it's done through some newfangled Minority Report-style superpaper.
The new EGM is planned to launch before the end of the year, so hopefully some clarification on how exactly this intriguing new multimedia strategy will work will come along soon.