Print magazine tested technology "expanded reality"

When readers hold the December issue of Esquire men's magazine in front of a webcam, see how the magazine comes to life on their computer screen the letters flying and actor Robert Downey Jr. gets off the cover. Turning or tilting the magazine, the image replicates the movements.

The magazine's editors are clearly excited about the "expanded reality", his latest experiment in search of maintaining the vitality of the print media in the midst of the digital invasion.

"I felt like a caveman seeing fire for the first time," said art director David Curcurito.

The animation is triggered by a table that looks like a crossword puzzle, printed below the image of Downey. There are six more in the pages of the magazine that hits newsstands on 16 November and each activates a different interactive animation, plus a couple of commercials.

In times of crisis for the industry magazine rack, Esquire innovations can be interpreted as the future of print media ... or drowned his final slap of encroachment of the Internet.

The site also takes away some of the advertising revenue and readers of the magazines were, as publishers have tried to give more impact to the content on paper. Time tested with publications to the extent that permit the consumer to combine sections of eight of its magazines. Entertainment Weekly put a video screen and in a recent Esquire last year used the digital ink on the cover of its 75th anniversary edition.

Although not say how much, the director of Esquire David Granger admitted that this number costs more than normal, but the Lexus car brand takes over part of the cost to pay for two ads "expanded reality. He said he can not use this technology every month, but would like to do it as often as possible.

Unlike many publications on paper, but sold less advertising, Esquire has sustained its audience. On the Internet, where it publishes some of his articles, reaching modest numbers, with 362,000 visitors in September, according to comScore. But its average circulation grew by 38,000 copies in this decade and in the second half of 2009 reached 718,000, according to the Bureau of Circulations Hearing.