FLYPmedia.com is absolutely green. It is a paperless magazine—an expected future for all magazines. Instead of turning paper pages, now one can click the mouse so that animation can turn a pretend page for you. Stocked between stories are various images—but in this case the pictures move, either through flash or animation. Our brain has to do nothing except just watch and be impressed by fancy animation.
According to Mike’s “10 Laws of Interactive Storytelling,” FLYPmedia is a solid example of exactly that– storytelling interactively with a reader. FLYPmedia allows you to read a magazine style story, adding elements of flash, animation and video to take it to the next level. If you’re not into all that jazz, you can read a text only format as well. The point is there’s a choice. And as Mike points out, it’s all about choosing the choice options.
If you don’t like to watch, and listening really gets your juices revved up then you also have the choice to download a podcast. FLYPmedia.com seems to offer many features to its users, but perhaps not a lot of original content. The most recent feature story on Jennifer Lopez has been taken from LATINA magazine and has been translated to FLYP’s language; offering animated page turns and audio bites. Right off the bat it feels like an aggregate site.
On face value, FLYPmedia.com is fascinating, but it has a long way to go as far as being truly diversified. As you read the feature articles, you can stop and watch the video instead (and then going back to the print seems redundant to me). In other words it’s like a magazine page imbedded with video. Nonetheless, an online magazine can flourish more with features like the New York Times story “Exonerated.” This format is an experience in itself. It is different. You still have your choices, but you can play with what it offers, and it offers a new way to digest a story.
We all know the blog feature is a must, at least right now. FLYPmedia has a blog element to it, but it is surprising that the blogs aren’t linked up with the stories they are featuring. In this case, while the blogs serve as their own “stories” or beats on the site, wouldn’t it make sense to link a blog entry or at least a feedback element? For example, CNN’s magazine style story on living longer includes print, video and the blog feedback element.
It seems like a must to generate more traffic to their site and to their good stories. Since hyper locally focused sites like GapersBlock.com are booming via “blog mentality,” (not to mention these sites keep it simply print for the most part)FLYP needs to bring that element also to flourish globally. I predict that will be their greatest challenge since their stories are so broad.
