If turning the pages of a magazine seems too tiring or monotonous, fear not, because your favourite magazine may now be available on your cellphone as a “mobizine”.
Touchline Media, which produces sports, health and lifestyle publications, has turned some of its leading magazines — Kick Off soccer magazine, Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated and Shape — into mini, Java-supported magazines for your cellphone.
These “mobizines” have been available to the public since Tuesday.
It costs R5 to download the software to a cellphone, by SMSing the word “mobo” and a magazine code to 36690. The mobizine is then usually saved in the phone’s applications folder, so users do not have to pay every time they return to their mobizine. A weekly SMS informs users of a new edition of the mobizine to be downloaded — it beats having to remember to buy a magazine at the shops.
Men’s Health readers will be able to read little articles on nutrition (including recipes), workouts, sex pictures and tips and general men’s health tips, while the Kick Off mobizine will feature breaking news, results and logs, football trivia and a blog.
The Sports Illustrated mobizine has pictures of swimwear and sport models, sport facts, trivia and style, and Shape has articles on food (recipes and nutrition), workout routines and beauty tips and information.
Andrew Lanning, head of new media for Touchline Media, said in a press release that mobizines are just a small step Touchline Media is taking to embrace the developments in mobile technology.
“Convergence, a brand-new buzzword a mere few months back, is now almost a given as the various media platforms come together via the internet, cellphones, notebooks, PDAs, interactive TV, PVRs and print.
“Throw in the fact that consumers, rather than content producers such as ourselves, make the call on how, when and where they would like to engage our content, and one has an inkling of the environment we find ourselves in,” he said.
The mobizines are compatible with 75 of the newer cellphones (GPRS is needed).