Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Mad About Mags

Print is undergoing a major transformation. More and more we are hearing talk about how e-readers and mobile devices are shaping journalism, publishing, advertising, and libraries.

Last month Fortune magazine did a cover story on the Future of Reading, discussing how tablets will change books, magazines and newspapers. For a glimpse of what that may look like, check out the unveiling of Wired magazine's tablet app (it's pretty cool -- if you only click one link from this post, let it be this one!)

How can people expect to access digital magazine content? Companies like Maggwire.com and Zinino.com hope to be the iTunes of magazines -- serving as gateways and content managers for consumers, though Apple already has designs on that with the upcoming release of the iPad.

And what about libraries? Last week David Lee King sat in at the Public Library Association conference in Portland to discuss Top Tech Trends. At the top of the trends list...e-book readers. It is highly likely that libraries will begin adopting this newfangled format.

It is going to be interesting to witness how all this unfolds for the magazine industry and readers.

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