Digital Over Print > Life and Times: March 1, 2010.

Before turning in last night, I read a very interesting article on readwriteweb.com.  It was about the impending takeover of digital magazines over the printed magazine.   Now some say it will never happen, and some say it has already; whichever way you feel, the strength, usability, and ease of digital publications is undeniable…and although the image of a printless world may be a scary one, it just might be a reality one day.  With products like the the Amazon Kindle, Sony’s eReader, and ofcourse Apples iPad…The question isn’t… if, the transition will occur, but more like when.  Heck, when I visited the site readwriteweb.com it was through my iPhone, and I wasn’t phased at all by the size or the interface, so that fact alone is a testament to technologies growing impact on how we digest information everyday.

Here’s a video of Sports Illustrated new concept digital magazine.

What’s funny is that most digital magazines offered today carry the stigma and replicate the experience of the “dying” print magazine.  The magazines are confined by a virtual representation of 8.5″x 11″ sheets of paper, when in actuallity we have the entire screen to use as a canvas; To turn the page we click the corner and are greeted with an oddly satisfying page turning animation.  Although the learning curve for reading this way is null, it’s very dishonest; There is a better way, and I hope to tackle that in the oncoming months.

And I leave you with another concept magazine that expresses the possible future of digital publications

The more I think about it, and the more I read these articles, the more I feel when it comes to Viral Status Magazine, I should go all digital and leave print behind.  It would be on a platform that ANYONE can reach, carry all the obvious advantages that digital presents over print (video, audio, interaction), and would allow me to make instant changes and updates (where in print if you have an error, and you run 2,000+ plus copies, there is no undo button).

Stay tuned…