Making magazines move

Here’s another zoomy, immersive take on digital magazines, from the womens’ book Viv. (I’m old enough, or at least have watched enough TV, to picture Lucille Ball’s frumpy sidekick Vivian Vance when I read “Viv,” so I’m thinking the thing could use a shot of zazz.)  It’s great eye candy, to be sure, but it raises a couple of questions about the future of magazines in the tablet age.

What proportion of resources will publishers actually end up putting into the production of bumpers and transitional sequences? This one is a concept animation, obviously, and long on the gee-whiz factor. But month in and month out, will publishers really find it worth the time and money to craft as elaborate a wrapper as this around their print content? Or, conversely, will they feel that they have to go visually nuts in order to make an impression? And although physical space is less of an issue than in print, how much capacity will be left for actual content, how much attention capital will readers be asked to spend on the sexy stuff, and how will the balance be struck? The danger of a take like Viv’s, as attractive as it is, is that it shoves the content into the background. For a more nuanced approach, take a look at the dazzling prototype from Bonnier, which I first wrote about here back in December.

All this will shake out in time. But how many publications will get stampeded rushing to claim space in the tablet landscape?