Part One: The Ghost of Domino
I was crushed when Domino, the glossy devoted to interiors and all-things home, folded earlier this year. But when I read that two members of the Domino team started a new digital magazine called Lonny to fill the void, it took me over a month to check it out. I am of the tactile reading school. I like my books and magazines in my hand, and I prefer to read the Sunday paper on Sunday in my yard, not online two days earlier.
I expected Lonny to resemble a traditional "web site of a magazine" (see lucky.com) both in regards to layout and content. It doesn't. Lonny is presented on a digital publishing platform called Issuu that's been around for a few years and currently hosts thousands of publications, from industry journals to experimental magazines (I even found a digital version of my alma mater's daily newspaper).
It's laid out exactly like a printed magazine, in a linear format with pages that you "flip" by clicking arrows. You can zoom, view by spread or by single page or in full screen mode. It's basically as though someone designed a magazine and uploaded the PDFs. Except instead of ripping out clippings of things I want to check out online later, objects in the photos and layouts are tagged so I can just click on them and go directly to the related web site. Pretty cool.
I know there are those who argue against applying the metaphors of the physical world to the digital world. Why do we have to have "files" and "folders" on our "desktops"? Why should digital media be constrained to irrelevant boundaries? Well, it's because there are plenty more people like me who need structure and familiarity in the presentation of reading material if they're going to cross the digital divide.
Which brings us to Part Two: The Elusive Apple Tablet
I read this post by John Abell on Wired today in which he hypothesized that the Apple Tablet would some day (soon) go from mere rumor to actual object if only for the sole reason of burnishing Steve Jobs' legacy. Abell writes, "If he is looking for One Last Thing, saving journalism would be the Holy Grail." For Abell, the tablet's success depends on Apple's ability to complete the analogy
iTunes :: The Music Industry as i_____ :: Print Media
Issuu seems like a step toward filling in that blank. It's interactive, yet traditional, easy to use, readable and perhaps most importantly, advertising friendly (Lonny has full page ads just like a "real" magazine).
I can say with 100% confidence I will never buy a Kindle. But an Apple tablet with an Issuu-like platform? Sign me up.
www.lonnymag.com
Issuu hosts a digital version of The Daily, complete with coupons to Papa Johns. http://issuu.com/thedailynorthwestern
Rather than redesign the content of the fall issue of V to fit a web site, the print files can be reused as-is. http://issuu.com/vmagazine/docs/v60
Explore Issuu here: http://issuu.com/