Publishing business“Thriving in a new media universe” is the theme of the conference, but would prefer “everything is possible”. Is not easy to work in this arena, “best work comes out of desperation, despondency and despair”. About 5 years ago thought “I’ve been here for 9 years and it’s still a magazine”. Convened with all the editors and quizzed them: what is this? (holds up a bottle of ketchup), holds up anther bottle which has the dispenser on the bottom, a great consumer product; second part of quiz held up the first issue of magazine and then held up the latest issue of the magazine – said they are the same …ing thing! Asked editors to re-think what makes a magazine. The editors were enthusiastic but the writers less so – afraid their word counts might shrink. The first experience the reader has is the tangible one – picutres, layout, paper, etc. Result of all this was asked ourselves fundamental questions and came up with new stuff – for example started to use margins of the magazine for jokes, fiction, etc.; changed table of contents in many ways, including creating works of art out of them. From there moved on to changing the cover and developed the wall of type. From there went on to have an e-ink cover so had a cover that moved. Perforated the cover. Trying to figure out how to make paper more important and exciting. Developed the augmented reality magazine where could get different stuff by manipulating the magazine in front of a computer. Showed that paper could do more things than we ever expected. Then along came the iPad and “it ruined my life”. Redesigned every element of the magazine for the iPad. Now entered gaming. Will be two free levels and to get the next 5 levels pay $4.99. Taking the magazine into retail. Will be doing a commerce site for men’s apparel. Magazines have always made people want things but have never delivered the things. Wants to deliver what they make people want. Breaking down of barriers and breaking down what a magazine is, allows you to find out what a magazine can be. And the answer is “everything”. Discovered that everything is possible.

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