Experimental Covers: The New Yorker and Esquire Light Up Dreary Magazine Sector

It's been about six months since The New Yorker's first "cell-phone cover," which was drawn by artist Jorge Colombo, using an iPhone app called Brushes.

Well, he's back!

This time, in a time-release video, you can watch in on his technique as he paints Midtown around the Empire State Building.

As I noted back when his first cover was released, it's too bad the magazine's business executives can't seem to find similarly break-through techniques to replicate the level of creativity of their colleagues on the content side, who continue to deliver an excellent product week after week.

Like all Conde Nast titles, The New Yorker has its own publisher, and ostensibly operates as a separate unit inside the publishing empire. Yet none of that chains of magazines has demonstrated much in the way of creative new business models, either online or in the emerging mobile space, to date

Don't blame the editors; they're doing their part.

Meanwhile, over at Hearst Corp., check out Esquire and its even wilder "augmented reality" cover. I'm not sure whether all visitors are going to be able to make this (downloadable) experience work for them, but Esquire gets an "A" for effort, anyway.

Related Bnet Link: May 25 New Yorker Cover on iPhone a Signal to Business Execs