in locations where you have time to kill. Could it be a hologram floating in
front of you? Or perhaps a special set of contact lenses projecting a virtual world of dinosaurs or moonscapes all around you?
As whacky as some of these ideas might sound, they have all been researched and found to be grounded in both current or pending technology and based on initial business models that would indicate potential financial success.
At the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, a class of more than 40 advanced graduate students in media technology and media management spent almost half a year in 12 project teams pondering the challenge: ‘The Future of Magazines’. Under the guidance of course director assistant professor Daniel Pargman, the students interviewed and brainstormed with magazine industry executives and visionaries, tech gurus, and dozens of consumers, and then built business cases for visions of the future of magazines.
Let’s start with print because we know
it best and it’s a good assumption that it will be with us for the foreseeable future. But not as we know it. The print magazine reading experience is already being enhanced with QR codes, augmented reality, and watermarks.
But there might be other ways to bring new value to print editions by
Print magazine reading experience is already being enhanced with QR codes, augmented reality, and watermarks.
improving their utility and availability. Let’s say you are waiting for a bus,
plane or train, and you forgot to bring reading material with you and nothing on the newsstand is especially appealing.
No problem. Look up at a digital touch
screen showing dozens of magazines, touch a button, activate payment, and two minutes later, presto, your favourite magazine is in your hands.
One of the Royal Institute student teams
called this service ‘MagUbiq’, for ubiquitous magazines. Their interviews with printing technology experts convinced them that nano- and bubble-printing technologies will soon be capable of delivering print-on- demand magazines quickly and profitably.
The students anticipated servicing digital readers as well, using NFC (Near Field Communication) to download magazines from the waiting room touch- screen to tablets and smartphones.
Staying with paper, what if readers could
smell, eat, taste, and even literally cook with or grow their magazine in their gardens?