The October 5th edition of Entertainment Weekly has a built-in Twitter feed (really)
Youth-oriented TV drama factory The CW is hoping that Entertainment Weekly readers are interested in taking Twitter from smartphones and computers to the printed page -- er, at least a printed page with an LCD insert attached. The October 5th issue of EW features a miniature LCD display with the six most recent posts to its Twitter feed (@CW_Network), as well as a "short video showing stars of new CW shows," according to The New York Times. Yes, seriously -- an LCD screen with some form of internet connection embedded directly into copies of a physical magazine. "Emily Owens M.D." -- a new show on The CW -- is the first to receive direct promo treatment via the magazine's LCD display. It's unclear if all issues of the Oct. 5 edition will contain the embedded video screen (only 50,000 issues of a 2009 EW issue ran an embedded Pepsi video ad, for instance).
CW executive VP Rick Haskins said the company's social media team overseeing the project will only filter out "profanity or other unacceptable language." As for negative tweets, however, those are fair game. Not that we'd encourage such things, but this setup sounds all too ripe for exploitation by the denizens of the internet. Do with the information as you will, unscrupulous readers.
