Esquire makes E-ink the cover star

GENTS MAG ESQUIRE is set to become the first paper magazine to use an E-ink display in its newsstand cover.

A bastion of American culture, Esquire's archive of magazine covers is currently on display in the MoMA in New York, and to celebrate the occasion, the E-ink display will feature on next month's issue with the message: "The 21st Century Begins Now".

Ford has sponsored the display, which will be inserted into 100,000 copies of the magazine at no extra cost to the buyer, and the magazine will have a Ford ad using the E-ink on the inside cover.

Hearst, which publishes the rag, reckons it has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in making the technology work, from hand-assembly of the displays to the battery that will power the display for the 90 days it's on sale. The magazines have to be transported by refrigerator to keep the battery fresh, apparently.

E-ink is currently used on devices like the Amazon Kindle, but this is believed to be the first 'mainstream' roll-out of the technology.

Now if only they could get their hot celebrity pictorials done on LCDs and inserted for our animated pleasure - that might be worth paying for. µ