It’s no secret that print magazines have to figure out a way to stay current to sell ads. Today, WWD reported that InStyle is entering the previously-techy world of augmented reality with its December cover, featuring Taylor Swift. Readers who hold up the cover to their webcam will see Swift, surrounded by snowflakes, spring to life in a 45-second video that ends when she signs her autograph on screen.

Publishers are fighting hard for ad dollars, and this sort of experiential cover is a smart way to bring in new advertisers. In fact, InStyle’s publisher has extended the augmented reality theme to a special “gifting in 3-D” marketing program and has gained upwards of 12 new advertisers and will see a 3.6 percent increase in pages.

-Frani

Brian Stelter’s article on the front page of The New York Times foregrounds the integral role social media site Twitter is playing for Iranians during the current election aftermath.

Amidst a tumultuous political atmosphere, where authorities have blocked text-messaging on cell phones and journalistic websites, Twitter has emerged as an invaluable way for Iranian citizens to swap information about protests and demonstrations. In a remarkable move, recognizing Twitter’s invaluable role, the US State Department asked the site to postpone its scheduled maitenance in order to maintain this conduit of information for those in Iran.

This entire chain of events is fascinating to me, from the politics itself to the foregrounding of social media, and is a powerful example of how the Internet frontier—with the democritization of information and access that many seem to decry—can be an incredibly powerful venue, one that may even enable social and political movements.

In addition, Twitter has become a funnel for videos of protests and information about the elections, information otherwise banned from leaving the country. At a time when many feel the decline of print newspapers will degrade the quality of journalism, the internet—Twitter and YouTube, specifically—have filled the gaps in news-gathering that bans on traditional journalism have created. Revolutions every which way.

-Elise

For all you @lancearmstrong fans out there…

Bicycling.com’s Boulder Report featured an interesting perspective on the interesting relationship journalism and social media have which each other using Lance Armstrong as catalyst for discussion.

Lance Armstrong has apparently gone silent for the press following a protest staged by the participants of the Giro d’Italia, for which he was rumored to be at least partially behind.  It appears some members of the press have returned the favor and refused to quote his tweets (Armstrong is an avid and popular tweeter).

I won’t go into the entire discussion here as it is a deep one and I feel the author does a good job of examining it, but this interaction is an excellent example of how journalism (specifically celebrity and sports journalism) and social media interact and how those interactions are changing, in good ways and in bad

-Andrea

P.S. Apparently (also according to Boulder Report) there is a flame war over this topic in the comment section of the NYTimes “The Lede” blog.

The Chicago Tribune’s masthead today featured the editors’ Twitter handles instead of their names. I love to see the print media embracing online.

—Alyssa

Today’s U.S. Airways crash yet again proved the power of Twitter and citizen journalism, as Janis Krums posted the first photo of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the microblogging platform from his iPhone.

mashable:

A US Airways jet en route from New York to Charlotte crashed into the Hudson River off the west side of Manhattan with more than 150 people on board.

New York City firefighters and passenger ferries responded to the crashed plane, which floated near the historic aircraft carrier, The Intrepid.

Hoping everyone gets out unhurt..

Fortunately everyone has been rescued!

-Maria

Everyday I hear more news about media deaths.  Many of the fallen are print media - the old guard who have lost too much ground to blogs and other online media.  Now, The Printed Blog, is bucking the trend by printing (on paper that folds and everything!) top blog posts in the Chicago area.  The newspaper-type publication includes localized content and is available for free in high-traffic pedestrian areas.  According to the Wired Blog, where I first came across the news, a New York edition is expected to roll out soon.

-Tom

With newspaper circulation tumbling, many news organizations are taking measures to drive traffic to their websites.  Today I stumbled on a new feature on the New York Post Web site, the Pop Video Quiz.  The quiz I took questioned my memory of the hilarious and disturbing scandals of 2008 (Spitzer, Madoff, Blagojevich, et al). In true NY Post fashion, there is an entire quiz devoted to the paper’s favorite bad girl – Ashley Dupré.  Other quizzes include supermodel trivia and Wall Street woes, among others.  All questions of appropriateness and class aside, the quizzes are fun and may drive considerable traffic to the NY Post site.

-Tom