"Apple has finally put to rest the rumors and added the iPad to its mix of products. I’m sure there’s more to come before the iPad is even offered to the public, but as this article asks: Where’s the magazine store?

From TUAW: “Sure, there’re sites like emagazines.com that offer browser-based magazines, but there’s no one universal storefront for emagazines that’s easy to use. Even Zinio doesn’t make the emagazine buying experience as easy or pleasurable as buy a song from the iTunes store. Can you imaging what an iMag app might be like?”

The TUAW post goes on to make the case that magazines could benefit greatly from an iTunes-based, or separate app, store. Sure, nothing is perfect. And magazines would sacrifice a bit of control of distribution to go through Apple. But it beats the alternative of doing nothing.

"Often recounted, like the tales of Agincourt, with advantages, they present the reporter as a roguish knight-errant, a dashing adventurer with a streak of rat-like cunning. The stuff of countless Fleet Street memoirs, they are also the essence of the Watergate story and of newsroom dramas such as “The Front Page”. Today, however, such derring-do is rare, not just because telephones and live television make it unnecessary to rely on steamships and trains, but because the whole idea of news as a commodity owned and purveyed by journalists is slipping into history.”

So writes Brian Cathcart in More Intelligent Life, Winter 2009 issue. “If news, as a commodity purveyed by reporters, is coming to an end, when and how did it start?”

This article was published a few weeks ago, but I wanted to draw attention to it because it shows what may be coming soon to the world of magazine publishing. As an Apple fan, I have been reading all of the rumors about the coming Apple Tablet (iSlate?) with excitement. When it is finally announced, it will represent another moment when Apple takes its place well ahead of the pack in directing the future of consumer electronics.

But more than another fun gadget for consumers, the Tablet represents a dramatic shift for publishers, particularly magazine publishers, in how they will engage their consumers. In my opinion, it will raise the magazine to ever greater prominence in today’s media enviornment. When unbound (pun intended) from the constraints of the physical page, writers and editors will have even greater freedom in how they tell their story (video, statistics, along with traditional narrative). I believe writers and editors with a traditional print background (those who think clearly about who their audience is and and what they need) will be well prepared to take great advantage of this new platform. Watch these demos and you will understand. It’s exciting, and I’m anxious to see what the upcoming news event from Apple will bring about. Please don’t dissappoint.

I’ve long been a fan of David Levine’s caricatures in the New York Review of Books and other publications. When I first started blogging with another site that I created called Typeface, I wanted to write about books and ideas. I liked his caricatures and I thought that they would accent my site well. It was a shot in the dark, but I simply sent him an email telling him how big a fan I was of his work and asked if I could use his images from time to time to accent my posts. Most graciously, I heard back from him and he kindly granted me permission.

Growing up I thought I wanted to be a caricaturist, and I looked at David Levine’s work as the gold standard. In today’s digital age, it’s hard to say whether there will be another like him.

More about David Levine from The New York Times, here and here.

It’s the end of the year and I think it’s time to throw my choice into the “best-of” mix. My choice this year is The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. I wouldn’t necessarily call it the best book of the year, or my favorite. But I am calling it my book of the year for its bold attempt to tackle a big idea. I have greatly admired all of Wright’s work; he writes those big-idea books that incorporate data and theories from across many fields of study.

Althought I don’t think any book or author can have the final say on religion, science and society, this book creates a unique framework for future study of how religion and culture evolved over the centuries. Wright builds on themes that he explores in some of his earlier books, primarily that of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny--the idea that people enter relationships that are of mutual benefit. Does he come to a final conclussion as to whether he believes in God, or that God is a creation and function of societies? Maybe both. Here is how author ?? describes the book in this recent and thorough review of the book in the New York Review of Books:

“Wright thus offers what he emphasizes is a materialist account of religion. As he further emphasizes, the ways in which religion responds to the world make sense. Like organisms, religions respond adaptively to the world. More formally, Wright argues that religious responses to reality are generally explained by game theory and evolutionary psychology, the subjects of his previous books. Subtle aspects of the human mind, he claims, were shaped by Darwinian natural selection to allow us to recognize and take advantage of certain social situations. The most important of these—and the centerpiece of Wright’s theory—are what game theorists call non-zero-sum interactions. Unlike zero-sum games, wherein one player’s gain is another player’s loss, in some games both players can win; hence “non-zero-sum.” The classic example is economic trade. In a free market, trade occurs when both parties benefit from exchange (otherwise they wouldn’t engage in it) ...

“One consequence of the growing number of non-zero-sum interactions was that, through time, the “moral circle” expanded. While primitive man tended to view only his clan or tribe as fully human and so worthy of moral consideration, the ties forged among peoples via their cooperative interactions encouraged them to expand the moral circle from tribe, to ethnic group, to nation, and ultimately to all human beings.”

"Ad sales are falling, editors are going digital, employing online applications that can increase revenue. But it’s a tough fight against a free Internet.” So says the headline from The Globe and Mail’s wonderful summary article of what’s been going on in the magazine industry (media industry) over the past year. It’s a good read for those interested in the business. Some interesting paragraphs from the story:

“Magazines are hardly leaping out at media buyers these days. The industry has been walloped by falling sales: In the first nine months of 2009, magazine ad pages in the U.S. dropped 27 per cent from the same period last year, and revenues were down 20 per cent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. The Canadian magazine industry fared slightly better, but ad pages still dropped 21 per cent from January to September of this year, according to Nielsen LNA.”

But, “many recession-weary readers would rather troll the Internet for free than curl up with yet another discretionary expense, magazines have to reckon with the digital age, and make it profitable.

“Last week, five of the largest magazine publishers in the U.S. announced they were joining forces to create a “digital storefront” to make it easier for consumers to buy issues of their magazines for download onto laptop computers, smart phones and e-readers. The venture includes Condé Nast, Meredith Corp., News Corp., Time Inc. and Hearst Corp., which publishes Esquire. As part of the announcement, Time Warner’s magazine Sports Illustrated released a video showing what its issue might look like on a full colour e-reader tablet, such as the one that is rumoured to be in the works at Apple.”

A stat from the story: “In the first six months of 2009, of the nearly 600 consumer magazines in U.S. and Canada to report such figures, 67 per cent saw their paid circulation drop from the same period last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Even the most successful magazines are struggling. Of the top 25 U.S. titles, 60 per cent were down this year. A similar proportion of top Canadian magazines saw declines.”

An update: Apple’s rumored tablet computer could be coming sooner than expected.

I enjoyed this essay and I thought I would pass it along here on my blog. It’s written by one of my favorite reviewers, Michael Dirda, a reviewer for the Washington Post and other sites. Here he writes about the nature of his reading habits (voracious to say the least) and the changing nature of today’s literary culture. I especially liked this paragraph, where he writes about a moment he felt he was at the crossroads, seeing his profession evolve while he had to make a decision about his future.

“Of course, I didn’t count on the now ongoing crises in print journalism. Nor that Book World itself would cease to be a separate section in 2009 (my pieces now appear in the Style pages on Thursdays). Neither did I pay enough attention to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s comment about being a professional writer: “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” Still, a long career in newspapers, combined with a workingclass background, does teach resilience. Any journalist I’ve ever known figures that he can cover just about anything. It’s part of the cocky charm of the field.”

On a recent Tonight Show, Wiliam Shatner joined Conan O’Brien to conduct a dramatic reading from Sarah Palin’s autobiography “Going Rogue,” with bongos and a bass. Surprise walk-on guest Sarah Palin joined Shatner to read a few excerpts from his book, “Up Til Now.” Good stuff.

Audiobooks are certainly not new, but this has to be. Author David Sedaris has released his latest audiobook, “Live for Your Listening Pleasure,” on vinyl. From the New York Times:

“As physical formats and devices have shrunk, revenues for the audiobook industry have grown, since it is more convenient to listen to an iPod while exercising and commuting than fiddling with CDs. Digital downloads grew to 21 percent of the industry’s total sales in 2008, from 6 percent in 2004, according to the Audiobook Publishers Association ... Reminiscent of Blue Note albums from the 1950s and 1960s, the cover features a photograph of a woman sprawled on a white shag rug with a come-hither look, albums strewn about.”

Anyone familiar with Sedaris would hardly find this surprising. I would certainly expect something unique from him. According to the Times, vinyl has made a comeback in recent years, selling $57 million in 2008, the best since 1990. But audiobooks on vinyl are so rare that the figures have never been tracked.

I wanted to like it, but I also love books too much. So when I went into Barnes and Noble lately and saw the Nook, the new digital reader, I have to say that my first impression was good. The design is wonderful: sleek, easy to hold. However, when I started to press buttons and actually interact with the device I was most unimpressed. Many of my complaints are actually the same as this review from Engadget. Here are some excerpts from the review:

“Throughout our testing with the Nook we vacillated between being completely charmed by the aesthetics of the reader, and completely frustrated by the way it actually works. In many ways the Nook has a leg up on the competition—not just by its presence in Barnes & Noble stores (though that helps), but by providing an attractive package and feature set, offering personalization (via add ons and accessories), a huge selection of books, perks like the LendMe feature, that color screen, and the excellent buying experience. On the other hand, when it came to day to day use, we felt let down in a big way, and can only imagine how magnified that feeling would be if we’d gone and shelled out nearly $300 for the device.”

David Pogue was even more to the point in his review today in the New York Times: “Unfortunately, we, the salivating public, might be afflicted with a little holiday disease of our own: Sucker Syndrome. Every one of the Nook’s vaunted distinctions comes fraught with buzz kill footnotes.” He also notes how slow the Nook is, something I experienced firsthand in the store. None of the salespeople know how to use them, and the device was so slow that you couldn’t tell whether the device responded to your touch or not. Pogue explains”

“Often, you tap some button on the color strip — and nothing happens. You wait for the Nook to respond, but there’s no progress bar, no hourglass, no indication that the Nook “heard” you. So you tap again — but now you’ve just triggered a second command that you didn’t want.

“It takes four seconds for the Settings panel to open, 18 seconds for the bookstore to appear (over Wi-Fi), and 8 to 15 seconds to open a book or newspaper for the first time, during which you stare at a message that says “Formatting.””

I am a big Barnes and Noble fan; I’m a member and I make most of my purchases at their stores. But I think I am going to wait on the e-reader. Please Apple, announce that you are making a Tablet computer and solve all of my problems.