Esquire’s editor in chief told New York Times that the magazine would celebrate its 75th year by releasing an issue of the magazine with electronic cover that flashes “The 21st Century Begins Now”. E Ink – a company that designs displays for Amazon’s Kindle will produce the cover. Esquire has exclusive right to use the technology through 2009. The electronic cover will be used in only 100,000 copies of the magazine. The monthly circulation of the magazine is about 720,000. The magazine with electronic cover will run out of juice after 90 days of use. The display cases and batteries are made in china and the device is inserted by hand into each magazine in Mexico. The issue is then shipped via refrigerated trucks to preserve the batteries. Kevin O’Malley of Esquire said “This is really the 1.0 version, imagine when the consumer walks by a newsstand and sees that it is alive.”
[Via The New York Times]