Mens mag debuts e-ink cover

Kindle display used in print publication

Sony wants everyone to ditch paperbacks in favour of its Reader electronic book, but man-mag Esquire is keeping the printed world alive with an e-ink magazine.

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The 75th anniversary issue of the US edition of Esquire features a small e-ink display on the front cover which flashes between a “The 21st Century Begins Now” headline and a collage of images.

The screen uses technology from E Ink, the firm that supplied the e-ink screens for both Sony’s Reader and Amazon’s rival e-book, Kindle.

The magazine isn’t wirelessly connected and so can’t be updated – ah, the drawbacks of print... - but the magazine’s editor-in-chief, David Granger told the Associated Press that if the concept’s used in future then, hopefully, the screens could be linked to the web, allowing content to be updated post-sale.

Each e-ink Esquire runs on six batteries, which are said to last for between three and six months.

It’s not known how much it cost Esquire’s publisher to produce the October issue, but 100,000 copies of the e-ink edition go on sale today in the US at $6 (£3.40/€4.21) a pop - $2 more than usual.