First-Ever Digital Cover Gives 'Esquire' a Lift

How sexy was the E-Ink technology on Esquire's October cover? In the eyes of the magazine-buying public, it was about as sexy as Angelina Jolie, but decidedly less sexy than Johnny Depp. Not terrible for a flashing piece of plastic that some critics (cough) dismissed as a disappointment.

The October issue -- the first of any magazine to make use of the digital wizardry that powers the display in Amazon's Kindle -- sold an estimated 140,000 copies on the newsstand, according to ABC Rapid Report. That would put it just a hair under the sales of July 2007, which featured Jolie and sold 142,104, the top figure for the year.

But October won't be this year's best-seller. So far, that honor belongs to January, which sold 159,359 with Depp on the cover.

It should be noted that only 100,000 issues of the October issue featured the E-Ink cover; the rest had a standard paper cover.