What iPads Can Do For Print

games.. with content

Pretty much everyone says iPads will prove the salvation of newspapers and magazines.

Well, maybe.

When the web first came along, newspapers saw the web as a place to distribute their newspapers, but online. What they did was simply smack their newspapers, pretty much as they looked on paper online instead. Text and mostly black and white.

But the way newspapers ‘looked’ for more than 200 years was entirely a function of the technology that gave birth to them – printing press, paper and ink.

When better presses came along, the visual quality of newspapers and later magazines improved.  LIFE Magazine was as much driven by Henry Luce’s desire to publish photos as by the concurrent invention of ‘hot’ presses which allowed for the publication of glossy and high end photographs.

And now we have the iPad.

But as newspapers and magazines move their content to the iPad, they are more than likely going to simply slap their printing press based architecture online, which would be both predictable and a mistake.

Here, for example, is a look at Wired’s online app for the iPad.

Interesting and among the better ones, but still largely a magazine on a screen.

Now look at what Alexx Henry does with VIV Magazine above.

Henry is one of the most creative and aggressive new digital photographers in the world.

I am not saying that his is ‘the answer’, but it’s an interesting approach.

It marries the technology and graphics of games, which were born online, with content.

Interesting, and a good place to start.

About the author

mrosenblum - For more than 20 years, Mr. Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital ‘videojournalist’ revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for videoliteracy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State’s Government’s broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the ‘VJ” paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on the “VJ” paradigm – 1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996).