AdAge and the new world of computers

ByLaurel Papworth

ADAGE introduces a “breakthrough in interactive features”. WARNING: Troll posting ahead.  A KEYSTROKE of GENIUS for International Readers? I don’t think so…  Now you can get every page — every word, every graphic, every ad, every dot and whistle of every issue of AD AGE — on your computer at a click. And we’re hearing a great cheer go up for…

ADAGE introduces a “breakthrough in interactive features”.

WARNING: Troll posting ahead.  A KEYSTROKE of GENIUS for International Readers? I don’t think so… 

Now you can get every page — every word, every graphic, every ad, every dot and whistle of every issue of AD AGE — on your computer at a click. And we’re hearing a great cheer go up for it around the globe!

FFS Why would anyone want that? The layout editor or whatever she’s called is a little too in love with the form they present their content in, and not enough with expediency, community, portability, findability, forwardability and all those other (social)media goodness. And direct to PC or Mac? What about iPhone? 

This is a searing indictment on the advertising industry. Maybe AdAge doesn’t know their audience and remains firmly entrenched in the 1990s, one step up from hypercard and marginally behind anything truly interactive… but that doesn’t make sense. Besides the stupid intro ad everytime you go to their site – well, duh,they are an ADVERTISING content provider -the site is quite good, blogs, comments etc. 

adage replica

Dear Laurel Papworth,

As an international reader of ADVERTISING AGE, this one’s  for you, as they say. Forget delivery delays and hefty fees for shipment around the world.

Now you can get every page — every word, every graphic, every ad, every dot and whistle of every issue of AD AGE — on your computer at a click. And we’re hearing a great cheer go up for it around the globe!

Advertising Age Digital Edition is yours for a full year for only $99.

You save 33% off the regular low price of $149 — and there’s more!

Here’s the deal. When the next issue becomes available, we’ll notify you pronto by email. You downloadthe issue in no time — directly to your PC or Mac — to view at your leisure. PLUS you get interactiveenhancements that make Advertising Age Digital Edition the best yet!

• Vivid, exact replicas of the print edition

• Clip, save and share your favorite pages and articles (LP: by “share” they mean “email to a friend”)

• Archive and bookmark issues for later reviewing

• Advanced search options

• Personalize your viewing preferences

• Click through real time for items that interest you most

To subscribe now for only $99 a year, click here. This one’s for you, and you’re gonna love it! Welcome to Advertising Age Digital Edition!

So then AdAge must believe that their audience wants a faithful “every page — every word, every graphic, every ad, every dot and whistle of every issue ” copy of AdAge magazine online. Absolutely do NOT adapt from one platform (print) to another (online), cos that ruins the purity of the content. If they know their audience (Advertising types) that well, then maybe the Ad industry is in even more trouble than we anticipate and will fail to rise to meet the challenges of social revolution in communication and entertainment.

Initiatives like this are a waste of money. But more than that, they continue to send signals to a terminally ill industry that you don’t have to change, you just have to do what you always do but more faithfully. Heritage vs Tradional Media. Heritage media keeps doing same-old, same-old, and transfer it online. Old form media can survive – traditional/mainstream media adapts concepts and principles to new channels. This is definitely in the heritage media basket. *sighs* 

“And we’re hearing a great cheer go up for it around the globe!” Nah, I think it was a sad sigh of despair. 

Usual Suspects – be respectful in your comments. New readers: ignore the usual suspects!

11 Comments

    1. the frustrating part is that it supports media properties like Australian Financial Review in their quest for excuses for locked down, archaic websites. And may cause some companies to do a U-turn from openness and transparency to ‘page turn, eyeball interactivity’. Because we all know they will ignore the AdAge blogs and point to the ‘interactive magazine’ as the ‘future’ of media online.

  7. Another sad case of content being authored for a single medium, unable to be re-purposed and thus pretty useless in other media.

    Even a respectable journal like Scientific American makes the same mistake. SciAm digital provides PDFs exactly the same as the print format. As so many articles are written across 2-page spreads, only with a HUGE monitor that allows the PDF to be rendered that way (and still be readable) does the content look right – or indeed make sense. (Try finding the sidebars that are on a different page.)

    One of the reasons that I gave up and went back to the print version. That and not needing to lug around a clumsy great machine everywhere.

  8. I completely get your point Laurel. I know the people this would interest, having observed them at close quarters recently. They like eBook brochures over substance-rich websites and are part of a hopefully diminishing breed in charge at “new-media” agencies.

    These are people who love that page-flipping animation, because it feels just like being there.

    It is all about selling ad space, preserving the traditional advertising space, and not about finding ways to engage with people in a way they want to.

    I weep for my bretheren!

    joe ortenzi’s last blog post..The train-chasing shuffle

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