Esquire Plans e-Paper Cover

-- Graphic Arts Online, 7/23/2008 1:24:00 PM

Esquire magazine plans a cover produced using e-Ink Vizplex flexible screen technology for 100,000 newsstand copies of its 75th anniversary October issue. The Hearst magazine will be the first to use the electronic paper in a mass-produced print product. E-Ink Vizplex is the same technology behind the Amazon Kindle and Sony eBook readers. Hearst, along with Toppan Printing is among several of the investors in Cambridge, MA E-Ink Corp. that produces the electronic paper.

The cover will carry a scrolling message : The 21st Century Begins Now.” The October project is being sponsored by Ford Motor Co., which will use the reverse side and the Vizplex technology in a double-page ad to promote its new Flex Crossover vehicle.

“This cover is both a breakthrough for magazines and an expression of the theme of our anniversary issue,” says David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire. “We’ve spent 16 months making this happen as one of the ways we’re demonstrating that the 21st century begins this fall. The entire issue is devoted to exploring the ideas, people and issues that will be the foundation of the 21st century.”

Last summer Esquire and Hearst contracted E Ink to develop a version of the electronic paper technology that could be used in a magazine. When the cover appears on newsstands in September, words and images will scroll across the flexible electronic paper display. One of the challenges was embedding the power source. The paper will remain active for about 90 days. About 650,000 copies will mail without the E-Ink cover. They will be available at Borders, Barnes & Noble and select newsstand vendors.

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