The New Yorker Digital Reader (and the magazine dilemma)

November 24, 10:36 AMSF Web 2.0 ExaminerGeorge Shirk

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The New Yorker magazine has its new digital reader up online, and it’s so cool, so useful, so imaginative and so easy to use, that it’s hard to imagine that magazine publishers elsewhere aren’t doing cartwheels of joy, not to mention readers.

So here’s to David Remnick and the forward-thinking peeps at the New Yorker for working toward solving the great magazine dilemma, to wit: How does a magazine move online while still preserving its integrity of design, plus its full advertising offering, while at the same time offering Web utilities such as search and hyperlinks?

It’s a big question for the magazine industry, and thanks to what appears to be a significant investment, the New Yorker has moved the needle way up.

Still …

It’s not perfect. Not close to perfect. There are deep flaws in the utility, and the hope here is that when the word wonks at the magazine get the feedback they so eagerly invite from this clearly-marked beta version, some of these flaws will be fixed.

First, the good news:

1. The magazine is offering four trial issues for free. Online subscribers are notified each Monday that the new edition is up, which is a big deal for those of us, say, on the West Coast, who don’t get our paper mags until Thursday, and sometimes Friday.
2. Subscribers can access the New Yorker archive back to 1925.
3. Hypertext is live, even in the ads.
4. It preserves the ads, and that’s not a bad thing. As my pal John Coate says, what’s a New Yorker without that Poke Boat ad? 

Now, the bad news:

1. The interface is difficult. It’s impossible to read a page without zooming in on it, and to flip a page you needs to zoom out. Wow that gets old. This is a very mouse-driven interface.
2. Search works only in the current edition, so if you happen to be looking for that old chestnut from S.J. Perelman or Herbert Warren Wind, fuggedabouddit.
3. For some reason,  many of the1962 and 1963 editions aren’t there. What happened?
4. The cost: While subscribers get the online reader for free, and new users get four free trial issues (!) , online readers must pony up $40 a year. Too much? No idea yet.
5. It works on the iPhone, but not that well, and it promises to be a real battery drain if you’re planning to read an issue all the way through without a re-charge. The interface issue is at its most extreme on mobile devices.

Still, the New Yorker Digital Reader is a great leap forward. A fantastic leap, really, and those of us who love the magazine but who live online should all stand up and give it a standing, if virtual, applause.