October 1, 2009
Ever sit around and wonder what my correspondence with the Top Secret Writer looks like? Well, wonder no more:

The Distinguished Professor received this packet a few days ago and sent this reply via his Blackberry:

BBB: Loved my recent piece of Bell mail--now part of my BBB Collection. I wonder how my mailman, Mr. Garcia, felt about it. Ese. PH

Yesterday, at lunch with the Mell boys, we got to talking about print media and the future. Ed's son, Taylor, remarked that he was staying at his dad's house recently and saw an Arizona Republic and was shocked at how small it is. This triggered two things for me. One, the only time he even sees the newspaper is at his father's house. Ouch! That is scary enough right there. And two, he must have seen a Monday edition which can be frighteningly thin (it appears that the Republic is trying to cut back as far as they can on Monday and still qualify as a daily. Their Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday editions are still respectably fat).

When I mentioned that Taylor's remarks were worrisome to me, he said, "I don't think you have anything to worry about with your magazine because when it comes to pictures I still want to hold it something in my hands and look at great pictures."

I voiced my concern that it is only a matter of time before the techies solve that little problem. Lo and behold I got this link from Trish Brink this morning:

Apple's New Toy

I think it's safe to say that little Apple Tablet with the great layout and super sharp photo resolution is going to replace most print versions. As my production manager, Robert Ray, put it, "That's not a bad thing. There goes your print bill." Ha. GP Roberto.

Here is a key paragraph from the story:

"The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft's Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it'll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today."

"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know."
—Michel Eyquem de Montaigne