Esquire EIC: Paper Magazines Can Be High-Tech, Too

Lest anyone think Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger is going to let the high-tech media revolution pass him by—and he’s not, judging from the publisher’s various mobile initiatives alone—The New York Times has a piece on how an upcoming issue of the magazine will feature a cover that runs on a battery.

“Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” Mr. Granger said in the article. “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.”

So what’s the cover all about? It’s going to use the battery and some other electronic circuits in order to flash the message “The 21st Century Begins Now” when it appears on newsstands in September.

Granger hopes that this cover will join others on the third floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, which contains a tribute to Esquire over the years: a collection of 92 covers from the 1960s and early 1970s that have contributed to the iconography of American culture. “The possibilities of print have just begun,” Granger said in the report. “In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.”

(Image credit: Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times)

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