esquire seems to think that embedding a small e-ink screen on the cover of an upcoming issue will reclaim the going-going-gone print audience. in reality, where the rest of us live, that's kind of like cramming a chirping greeting card chip between the pages & calling it multimedia.print guys, listen up, 'cause we're only going to say this 3 or 4 thousand more times:
1. it's a paradigm shift, stupid.
2. the future of print is a museum.
we now return you to your regularly scheduled internet access.
(don't get us wrong - elsewhen has supported e-ink since mit, and we think they're the bees knees for animated t-shirts, billboards, and whatnot. but if esquire really wanted to join the rest of us in this purple cow century, they'd be thinking of things like an iphone/ipod/kindle subscription model, using audio instead of text, video instead of static photos, and supporting the hardware manufacturers that are working to create digital paper.
and, since we're feeling generous today, here's an idea for newspapers: you print wedding announcements and photos, right? well, in case you've forgotten, bad news sells better than good news. why not print pictures of couples that are splitting up? maybe even include video profiles of each party to help them find someone new. and - of course - charge for it, plus charge interested parties that want the former bride or groom's contact information.
we know, we know. you're welcome.)