Best. Assignment. Ever

Hi fellow Edsters!

Damn it feels good to be an intern! Especially right now. With technology becoming ever more entwined in print, many people are predicting the death of magazines — but I couldn’t disagree more! I really believe the magazine industry is one that benefits from cross-platform branding (how else do you explain all those reality TV shows with magazine staffers? The Hills? Project Runway?) Plus, magazines want people to be thinking positively about their brand and advertisers as often as possible (again, think Vogue’s recent Fashion Night Out and Seventeen’s spin-off Seventeen on 34th). Because at the end of the day, all the positive branding reminds people how much they love the magazine and want to be one of the awesome readers themselves (you know deep-down you’re a Cosmo Girl, too!).

All this to say that magazines are embracing their websites and Twitter accounts because they reel in millions of viewers each year, many of which fill out print issue subscriptions! And as for the iPad and tablet versions of the magazines? They’re helping branding too. In fact representatives of the power-house publishers have recently established that the iPad is not so much a white knight for the magazine industry as it is a digital enabler, offering new platforms for magazine content, branding and interactive uses that the print models never could.

So now, you may ask, why am I so thrilled to be an intern at this exact moment? It’s because we’re literally in the midst of this technological revolution!! Today my editor swung by my desk with the coolest project ever — “Dream up an interactive quiz for our December iPad issue!” Seriously?? I died. Because by “dream up” she meant, we’ve never done this before, so go ahead and give it a shot! Literally, when it comes to the tablet and digital uses, we’re all exploring unchartered waters, and as interns, that means becoming better and more-qualified applicants for jobs!

So on that happy note, what new technology assignments have you worked on? Have you seen any really brilliant work put out by your favorite magazine apps or websites? I’m excited to hear what’s up and coming!

Until next time,
Your (very optimistic) Features Intern