Alex Bogusky’s resignation from MDC and CP+B last week created quite a stir in the ad industry. To be sure, it’s the end of an era. It wasn't a big surprise, though – Bogusky has increasingly worked on side projects to the point where it seemed his day job became a side project.
It might be an understatement to say his next moves will be closely watched by an industry hungry for heroes, prophets and high priests. There’s no doubt he will go on to pioneer some new ways to engage consumers on behalf of marketers.
Print and Digital at Condé Nast
Meanwhile, Condé Nast just promoted Scott Dadich, the creative director at Wired magazine, to the additional post of “executive director of digital magazine development.” According to some press reports, his mission is to replicate the success of such projects as Wired for the iPad at other Condé Nast titles.
With all due respect to Bogusky, this may turn out to be an even more interesting personnel move. Most of us have realized that Digital has affected Print media much more than it has affected Broadcast. Dadich is in a real position to leverage this shift for a big legacy print publisher.
It might be an understatement to say his next moves will be closely watched by an industry hungry for heroes, prophets and high priests. There’s no doubt he will go on to pioneer some new ways to engage consumers on behalf of marketers.
Print and Digital at Condé Nast
Meanwhile, Condé Nast just promoted Scott Dadich, the creative director at Wired magazine, to the additional post of “executive director of digital magazine development.” According to some press reports, his mission is to replicate the success of such projects as Wired for the iPad at other Condé Nast titles.
With all due respect to Bogusky, this may turn out to be an even more interesting personnel move. Most of us have realized that Digital has affected Print media much more than it has affected Broadcast. Dadich is in a real position to leverage this shift for a big legacy print publisher.
I'm excited to see what he brings to the other publications and how he uses the different types of content to individualize the digital versions. Although Wired for the iPad was leaps and bounds ahead of what the competition was doing, I hope he doesn't merely replicate that across all the other pubs, esp in the style and health mags which, in my opinion, offer some of the broadest scope of any pubs.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point, Amrita. The digital content shouldn't just be a pixel version of what's on paper -- and the various digital versions should vary based on the content they deliver. Platforms like the iPad don't just offer new ways to distribute content, but new ways to create content.
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like they've just taken a first step into the new content. Lots of interesting ideas. But, also some stuff that didn't work so well. Like the indicators to tell you when there is stuff below the page.
ReplyDeleteI will be interested to see how long it takes to develop a strong sense in the publishing world of when cool graphics (like their Mars rotator) pay out with added value to the reader and when they're just thrown in to be cool.
It would be interesting to involve a guy like Tufte in the process (he may be). I too rarely see digital work that delivers Tufte's sense of making really effective use of the screen in order to make more informative work.
BTW, agree that this is much more significant than the Bogusky story.
...Doug