High-Tech How-To: Reflections on an Evolving Industry

High-Tech How-To: Reflections on an Evolving Industry
Today marks the launch of Martha Stewart Living: Boundless Beauty, our company’s first digital magazine, featuring all original content for the iPad. It’s an exciting moment for us that fittingly coincides with the 20th anniversary of Martha Stewart Living. A how-to magazine celebrating everyday living, Living was the first magazine of its kind and, as such, it represented a shift in the magazine industry and in how readers engage with creative content. Now digital magazines are revolutionizing the magazine experience.
Our digital issue, for example, offers all the inspiring ideas, step-by-step instruction and magnificent photography that are the hallmarks of our brand. But thanks to innovative new technology, readers are able to swipe, tap, touch, and toggle their way through a spectrum of interactive experiences. It begins on our animated cover, a ‘Madylone’ peony that blooms right before your eyes (a single flower photographed 180 times over 10 hours), but also includes scrolling recipes, slide shows, videos, audio, panoramas, and access to my Twitter feed.
Readers can even watch a video of a decorating contest and vote on their favorite design style.Throughout the history of magazines, stories have been shaped by the personalities, vision, and philosophy of the editors, writers, photographers, and illustrators working behind the scenes. Now we have even more tools at our disposal, tools that are transforming the art of storytelling. Editors and writers can create content not just with words and images but with video and audio and links to websites, too. Photographers can shoot and share moving images as well as stills, creating something more active and cinematic.