One blogger whom I really enjoy reading is Mike CJ. Based on my reading of Mike’s website, I believe that he and I have a lot in common.
Mike was born in Hong Kong, went to school in Britain and now lives in the Canary Islands. He speaks two languages. Lots of similarities between Mike’s life and mine.
Today, Mike had an article about the future of the Magazine. Mike pointed out a lot of things that I believe in strongly. Mike pointed out that the future for printed media is electronic, not paper. I have believed this for a number of years. Several devices seem to be already available that will usher in the future of printed media:
- The Tablet PC, such as the iPad and other such tablets, with new devices coming out almost weekly.
- The Kindle and other such devices for reading books and newspapers.
- Even the cellular phone is moving toward being an e-reading device for people on the go.
A couple of things, though, that Mike pointed out were things that I honestly had never considered. Mike called for the following:
- Ads in “electronic magazines” that could be used for instant purchases. Let’s say you see an ad for a pair of sunglasses that you like, you should be able to click on the ad and instantly order the sunglasses. For the most part, we don’t have that now. We have ads where you can click and go to a webpage that might tell you where you can buy the item, but only a few offer instant ordering of the advertised item.
- In addition to the regular content that you would find in the printed magazine, Mike says that there should be a button that you can push on your tablet device that would allow you to access more in-depth information on the topic. Of course, if you access more in-depth information, it would cost you. But, the cost would be small like ordering an iTunes song, or maybe a cheap app from an app store on the net. Great idea. For example, the article in the e-magazine might mention an interview with somebody, but if you pay, you can watch the video of the interview. Super!
We are living in exciting times, and Mike’s ideas about the future of the magazine is an interesting idea. For those of us who make money on the net, we need to be thinking of new ways to deliver content, not just the same old tired ways that everybody else is using. We need to be delivering multimedia content. Not just print on the web, but also audio, video and who knows what else. What do you think?
Read Mike’s Magazine article here.
I think that this is right on target. I think very quickly those of us who make part or all of our living online will need to figure out how we do that when folks approach the Internet so very differently. For folks who sell books, for example, the idea of instant purchases sounds like a good thing. We already have that for some things, like Kindles, where the purchase is rather immediate.
The idea of paying for more in-depth information is intriguing. With my online high schools site, I could well imagine putting the basic information up, but requiring a small payment for additional information. Probably, on the other end, I could charge schools for that additional information space.
Hi Tom – Yes, I also think it is on target. Mike had some ideas that I had not thought of, and that I find exciting. I think that we can all learn a thing or two and apply them out our own online presence.