I am a loyal devotee of Vogue. It was the first glossy that I adopted as a teenager and I can’t recall ever missing out on a single issue. I don’t always think it gives great content, but I always insist on being informed. Love magazine, another from Condé Nasts stable, launched their iPad app a month or so again, so it’s timely that Vogue should do so now. So, as a woman in her mid thirties with a strong background in print publishing and an avid consumer of visual culture, the simple question is, how will I choose to continue my subscription to Vogue?
iPad app please. No question. That sexy light little tablet full of all my informational needs, and now with Vogue ‘extras’ can fit very neatly into my Céline bag thank you very much, and no more unnecessary paper in my life. Neat. (I’m a bit of paper Nazi these days. Only use paper if you need to, or if you’re making a meal of it, and if it’s fresh – see blog entry on NY Art Book Fair.) Paper and printing was the essential medium for Vogue and their sponsors to carry their monthly message, but these can now be supported digitally so why not? I don’t think we’ll loose anything to aesthetics here. My guess would be that much of Vogue’s market could afford an iPad right now, those who can’t it’s simply a matter of time, so how long before the print ‘edition’ becomes extinct? But with people wanting information immediately, how long before the concept of the ‘edition’ or the ‘periodical’ is done away with and the mag simply morphs into Vogue.com? This also begs the foggy question of the digital archive, how does / will that work? But of course going digital presents many opportunities for Vogue and the advertisers who I imagine are rubbing their immaculately manicured hands together as I write; imagine being able to flick though the magazine tap on a pair of shoes and ‘adding to basket’? Conspicuous consumption is hence immensely incorrigible and bound to give the economy a boost. Digitally the capitalists couldn’t be better placed; for the consumer blink and you’ve just dropped thousands on a bag after being mesmerised by an ad coming to life inviting you to join their gang. Careful now