To celebrate its 75th year of publication, Esquire magazine will put an “electronic” cover on its September 2008 issue. About 100,000 newsstand copies out of the total circulation of 700,000 will carry it. The image itself is a closely guarded secret, except perhaps for the nations of China and Mexico, the states of Texas and Kentucky, Esquire’s staff and executives of the Ford Motor company

Actually, “electronic” doesn’t really describe the venture very accurately. “Electric” is the more appropriate term. The cover will be produced with E-Ink technology. A mini-battery, developed in China, is the power source and will be hand-sewn into the cover by Mexicans, then the lot will be shipped to the magazine’s distribution depot in Lexington, Ky. The carbon footprint for this exercise in digital modernity is about sixty thousand square miles.

It would be hard to make this up, but if you are skeptical read Tim Arango’s article about the
Esquire cover in the New York Times.

When the battery runs out, readers may wrap their fish in the magazine’s paper.

– Richard Curtis