Prompt's TechBlog
Dear Esquire Magazine: The environment is not a gimmick
23 July 2008
Posted by Sean McManus
Esquire magazine in the US is going to have a battery-powered display on some copies of its September issue, according to an article in The Times. The display will flash the words 'The 21st Century Begins Now' and will use technology similar to that used in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.
An un-named publishing expert quoted by The Times dismissed the idea as a gimmick, which seems like a fair cop since the flashing display will only appear on 13% of the issues distributed.
What's most disturbing about this move is the complete disregard for the environment. Magazines are relatively easy to recycle, perhaps our least harmful luxury product. Adding in electronic components will either make it much harder to separate the rest of the materials for recycling, or will result in the collected paper stock being polluted with electronic trash.
We all know that batteries should ideally be rechargeable, and should be avoided on short life cycle items like birthday cards altogether. Esquire is a stylish magazine, with one eye on the '21st Century Beginning Now'. I would have hoped for a cooler and more environmentally sustainable gimmick.
An un-named publishing expert quoted by The Times dismissed the idea as a gimmick, which seems like a fair cop since the flashing display will only appear on 13% of the issues distributed.
What's most disturbing about this move is the complete disregard for the environment. Magazines are relatively easy to recycle, perhaps our least harmful luxury product. Adding in electronic components will either make it much harder to separate the rest of the materials for recycling, or will result in the collected paper stock being polluted with electronic trash.
We all know that batteries should ideally be rechargeable, and should be avoided on short life cycle items like birthday cards altogether. Esquire is a stylish magazine, with one eye on the '21st Century Beginning Now'. I would have hoped for a cooler and more environmentally sustainable gimmick.
Labels: batteries, ebooks, environment, publishing
# posted by Sean McManus at 2:20 PM 
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