E Ink ad inside the front cover will feature Ford Flex
Esquire magazine’s editor in chief David Granger says that his publication will be the first to ever use an E Ink display on the front cover. According to The New York Times, the E Ink display on the cover of Esquire will flash a simple statement saying “The 21st Century Begins Now.”
Granger told The New York Times, “Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years. I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.”
Esquire covers are currently on display in the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan and are described by the museum as “essential to the iconography of American culture”. Grander says that he hopes the magazine cover will someday end up on display in the Smithsonian.
Granger says that this is version 1.0 of E Ink for the magazine and that to get the current version for the publication Esquire’s parent company, Hearst, had to invest a sum in the six figure range to develop battery technology that could be embedded in the cover of the magazine. In exchange for the investment, Esquire is the sole user of E Ink technology in the magazine industry.
The E Ink displays will only be inserted into 100,000 newsstand copies of the magazine. The E Ink displays have to be installed into the cover by hand and transported to the magazine distributer in a refrigerated truck to preserve the battery. The battery in the cover is good for 90 days before it goes dead. The added expense of the E Ink display won’t add to the price of the magazine.
Esquire says that Ford sponsored the E Ink display and will have an ad for its Flex vehicle on an E Ink display inside the magazine cover.
E Ink is a private company that makes digital display technology that was first seen in supermarkets in the form of digital product advertisements. Today E Ink technology is being used in devices like the Amazon Kindle and can even be found in wrist watches.
