The perfect digital magazine

Frédéric Filloux of The Guardian in London writes about Bloomberg Businessweek‘s digital edition.

Filloux writes, “Today’s web is plagued by cheap design. Many sites, especially in the tech field, use stock photographs or copyright-free Flickr pics ad nauseam, quickly messed with by some enslaved intern. No such thing is allowed in an app. And BBW invested a lot in graphic design for both print and the digital products. The short video introducing every issue usually features the editor, Josh Tyrangiel, and the creative director, Richard Turley, or Robert Vargas, the art director, as they explain their cover story choices for the two versions of the magazine. (See examples in Coverjunkie, a good graphic design blog).

“No stock photos in BBW+; most pictures are produced on spec, and it screams. As for infographics, they are redesigned for the digital version. Granted, Bloomberg LLP is a huge money machine that made its fortune in financial services; an art direction splurge for its magazine is small token for this $7bn revenue company. Still, they made the decision. As for the app itself, it is one of the slickest of the market. Easy to navigate, read, etc.

“#2: Making Choices. You can have a good newsroom; but if there is no leadership or decisiveness in the coverage of assignments, if every subjects gets the same treatment, and if a weak editor-in-chief tries to please everyone, you’ll end up with a dull product. BBW+ is mostly about cover stories sliced into well angled articles.”

Read more here.