Digital Magazine creation, up until recently, has been mainly utilized by traditional publications making the leap from print to digital. Indie companies often are relegated to the timeless “Zine” format that is a fixture at many small bookstores. Glossi seeks to address this issue to give smaller companies a fighting chance in an explosive digital segment.
Glossi is a product of Californian based ThisNext, which is a social company with a strong emphasis on fashion. The company has developed expansive online tools that makes the entire digital magazine creation process fairly seamless. Users can upload images in popular formats such as JPG and GIF in an intuitive fashion and then customize their text. This platform supports rich media elements as well, such as video and audio. There is also strong social media elements with the ability to display your Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts. Users can “LIKE” your magazine directly within it and start online discussions. Once a magazine is created, it will be hosted on the main Glossi website and export options are available to embed the magazine into your own website or blog. Currently, there are no options to export your publication and submit it to other services that sell magazines exclusively.
Users can enjoy the traditional magazine experience that Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Apple, and Zinio all provide. You can gesture on a touchscreen device to turn the pages or use the mouse to do it on a PC. There is also functionality for animated page-turns, but no ability to pinch and zoom.
The company will soon be launching a fleet of mobile apps to give people a chance to read them on a dedicated iOS or Android app. The service itself is currently in the late stages of beta and most feedback has been positive. Being able to create your own digital magazines without learning Adobe Indesign and other expensive pieces of software may catch on. I can see many companies advertising their product catalogs or monthly deals on tech products using this format.
Right now, Glossi creators are locked into the fashion niche with DKNY, Lucky Magazine, RenttheRunway, and RevolveClothing as the main companies to release content. Seeing as though TheNext is heavily invested in fashion, it clearly makes sense.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
