This video exemplifies what I am talking about when I say media = features + content.

A breakdown:

• 0:15 The cover: Yeah! It can play video, so let's do that! But, it doesn't start with video, you have to launch it. Because if you started with video, then every time you go to read what the top heads are, you'd first have to wait for the %#^&! animation to end.
  
  
• 0:38 Table of contents: Well that would be coolest if the scores auto-updated, or your could set them to track what you were really interested in (see 0:46 for focus on baseball example, 2:10 for a fuller example). Note how the TOC scrolls up and down, not some idiot page flipping-- this isn't a print magazine and the concept is right to not imitate print too closely.
  
  
• 0:42 Orientation rotates: Apple made this de riguer, but seriously, the device can turn, take advantage of that.
  
  
• 0:50 Rearrange the contents: Hey there's a concept, let the reader decide the order. Are current publishers brave enough to loosen their grip on content ordering? Probably not. However, the Editor's version is always there, so you've got a choice: your own path or a curated one. _This_ is how to add value in publishing.
  
  
• 0:58 Photos of the week: Another value add from SI, the e-version can have more, or a customized stream. I wonder how many wonderful photos get culled from print each week because it would be too expensive (and polluting) to print all of them. Now we don't have to worry. I imagine photographers would be happy to have a better chance at distribution...
  
  
• 1:12 Flip view: Again brave and smart of SI to totally mess with the usual layouts. The page thumbnails let us see how long an article is and how pictoral. Great.
  
  
• 1:21 Slideshow within article: I love it. Fingertip indexing. Multiple images in one spread-- again how many cut each week from the print edition? Something cool to add would be linking to paragraphs: tap a paragraph or article section and the photo changes to something relevant. Tap a player's name, photo of that person comes up.
  
  
• 1:41 Sharing content: Brave, so brave it reminds us this is a concept and not a sold product. But imagine the opportunity for viral marketing. "Hey, you seen the new SI? Check this photo, here's a link to the issue buy site." And for brand loyalty, "Yeah, just set my Windows desktop to that great photo of the Yankees from last week's SI."
  
  
• 1:54 Text view: This is yet another way to view the content. No longer are customers trapped in one layout, we can now choose. Note the photo stream at bottom.
  
  
• 1:59 Advertising: A good first step. It begs the question, are ad revenues falling because most ads are lame and essentially based on us being a captive audience?
  
  
• 2:15 Fantasy team: NOW we get to the heart of it. It's not just a (static, oligarchy ordained, and environmentally wasteful) magazine, it's a sporting news delivery service. This is what I mean by media = features + content, it's not about "reading" it's about using information to enrich our lives. To liberate the content from a limited trim size.
  
  
• 2:23 SI Swimsuit interactive: Yeah it's classic top shelf eye candy and a must-demo for SI. But it could just as easily be content about how a team conducts physical trainings or pre-season camps, and it could get picked up by sports medicine programs at universities around the world. "Reprint" sales!
  
  
• 2:38 Push tech: Absolutely. And it builds a relationship with the customer.
  
  
• 2:40 Game based on sports cast: Much like the fantasy team. And social as all get-- turning a magazine from something read in solitude into a service that adds value to a game party. And what if these were in stadiums? Could it help me find like minded fans? Crowdsource photos from cell phones?

OK, so it's a demo, not a product. And we all know that the "smarty pants bigwigs" at Corporate present a high-risk for messing it up. As I tweeted recently, too many publishing execs want their content services to be axle holes in a hub when what we need are smarter intersections in a fishing net.

Just the same, everyone join me in turning to face Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony and say, "Your e-readers are regressive lameitude. Get in the game!"