Time Inc Plotting New Tablet-friendly Digital Magazine Format

Posted 12/02/2009 at 8:07pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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Print publications have really been taking it on the chin as of late, but Time Inc thinks they have just the idea to pull profits out of their current slump. The publisher of such magazines as Sports Illustrated, and Entertainment Weekly is working on an electronic magazine format for tablets. The goal is to make the experience fluid and practical enough that people might actually want to buy it.

The demo appears to take advantage of the tablet form factor. Stories are shown in full screen, and extra materials, like video or slideshows, can be integrated with the main story. There also appears to be some gesture support for flipping through virtual pages. All the content can be updated in real time if the device has an internet connection.

It seems obvious that this format is poised to take advantage of a possible upcoming Apple Tablet. All that remains is for that product (or others like it) to actually exist in significant numbers.Assuming you owned some sort of tablet, would you be interested in this sort of magazine format?