You Gotta Have a Gimmick

The future of magazines begins November 16. That is, if the future of magazines is "augmented reality" in the form of fancy ads and gratuitous computer animation.

On November 16, Esquire's latest experiment in gee-whiz promotion kicks off with an augmented reality (think: Minority Report) issue sporting Robert Downey Jr. and the coverline: "WTF?! A Living, Breathing, Moving, Talking Magazine?"

It doesn't quite breathe, but the issue does comes loaded with stickers—stickers!—that when held up to a webcam reveal an editorial layer invisible to the naked eye, according to the Wall Street Journal's Shira Ovide.

Per Ovide, "Turning the magazine on end triggers different images. A fashion spread about dressing in layers, for example, shows actor Jeremy Renner shedding a coat and sweater as the weather turns from rainy to sunny. Turning the magazine triggers a snow flurry, and Mr. Renner puts on more clothes and throws snowballs." In a related story from the Associated Press, Andrew Vanacore reveals that "The magazine's regular 'Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman' feature gets a new twist from actress Gillian Jacobs in a gray nighty. She'll tell a second "dirtier" joke should readers return after midnight."

Impressive! But was the whole issue written using those float-art stripper pens? Can invisible-ink puzzles be far behind?

In its golden years, Esquire has grown increasingly experimental. Last year for its 75th Anniversary issue in October, 100,000 copies of the magazine were sent to newsstands with an embedded E-Ink screen. That issue earned a small circulation bump, but was criticized by geeks on the Web who called it a "blinking disappointment" and "pathetic."

For its February 2009 issue, the cover featured Shepard Fairey's famous "Hope" image of Barack Obama with the coverlid "What Now?" which spoke both to Americans' thoughts on their new president and the magazine industry's concerns about itself.

That cover was tricked out to fold open and reveal an ad for the Discovery Channel. Granger defended the in-cover ad placement in an interview with the Magazine Publishers of America, saying, "We've gotten the sense that some of the people who have reacted to the cover have assumed that the window we created in the cover was something that an advertiser suggested, but this was an editorial idea. It's one of the several manufacturing gimmicks I presented to my publisher about a year and a half ago as things I would love to do if we could find a way to pay for them."

The May issue featured a mix-and-match cover incorporating several images by Martin Schoeller of George Clooney, Barack Obama, and Justin Timberlake.

More subtly, the magazine has also been toying with shooting its covers on video—specifically the ultrahigh-quality Red One camera—instead of using a still camera. June's Megan Fox and October's Kate Beckinsale covers were both shot this way.

Talking to the WSJ, Granger describes these experiments as follows: "It is a gimmick, but we're an entertainment medium," he told Ovide.

"We've been trying to do things that cause people to reevaluate what a magazine is and get people excited about this thing called print."