LEAPING off the page

Once you've dug deep into your pockets and found the Bt125 for the debut issue of Glitz and Glam, Thailand's first interactive magazine, you have plenty of entertainment lined up - but it's not confined to the printed page.

The cover price is higher than a lot of women's magazines on the stands, but the first issue of Glitz and Glam comes with the Grid Pen, which works as a scanner. With it in your hand, you scan the pages, bringing them to life with movement, visuals and sound.

 This new magazine for the digital age is the brainchild of Shane Kitiwatanasak, 35, a founder and managing director of Coolianaire Co Ltd.

"This concept for a magazine is new to most people. It comes out of the technology developed by a Japanese software company, which we've melded with print media. Our readers can follow the text, but at the same time see the video clips that accompany it", explains Shane.

After discussing how best to apply the technology, Shane and his business partners came up with an up-market women's glossy.

"We've branded it as the world's first interactive features magazine for women, covering fashion trends, lifestyles and digital technologies."

Sitting down at the computer, Shane demonstrates how to get the most from the magazine. And it's not complicated. First he plugs the Grid Pen into the USB port of the computer, then, holding the pen in one hand, he points it at a small square on the page. A video clip for the article pops up on the computer screen.

The beauty of the system is that readers don't have to be online if they simply want to flick through the pages. But once they are online, the interactive features also allow them to respond instantly to any advertising offers in the magazine.

 Readers need to keep hold of the pen to use it for the next issue of the magazine, or with other books published under this technology.

"When you want to keep track of social events in an ordinary magazine, all you get are still photographs. But using the pen to scan one of our pages, video clips of the party scenes suddenly appear, with sound and commentary for the event just like a television programme," says Shane.

Elsewhere in the magazine, the food and travel articles can be transformed into a cooking programme and a travel show.

To appeal to its projected readership of young female executives, Thai celebrity Pattariya Na Nakorn, or "Pye" as she is better known, has been brought in as editor-in-chief. It's a full-time job, she says, which means that she's had to sideline a project she was working on for Gucci.

"My job involves overseeing the whole concept for this 250-page magazine, editing articles and doing layout for each issue," says Pye. "But there's the extra work for the video and sound clips, too - it feels like double the responsibility of an ordinary print-media editor."

Both Pye and Shane believe that today's market is ready for a new magazine.

Their vision is to create an outlet for an emerging group of women who are interested in fashion and beauty, but also in the latest technologies for computers, mobile phones and other gadgets.

They're hoping that after the magazine's launch tomorrow night at CentralWorld Plaza, it's innovative format will become the talk of the town.

"Readers pay Bt125 for our magazine, and I think they get more than their money's worth. They can read the text, view the pictures, watch the video clips and hear about the stories too - like watching television from a magazine," says Shane.

The first issue has Thai actress Lalita "Mew" Panyopas on the cover; she features in a summer fashion shoot inside.

Software technology for printed media is developing fast, and Shane has more ideas to play with in the near future.

"I've seen a Japanese cookbook that uses this software to give readers a step-by-step video guide to recipes, as well as a publication for flat hunters that lets you peak into every corner of an apartment."

He has plans for a cookbook or a travel book using the interactive potential of this new technology in the near future.