Hachette’s Shock Import Launches with a Ballast of a Web Site, Video First

One of the more intriguing if odd things to come out of yesterday’s Magazines 24/7 conference was Shock, the forthcoming Hachette title, which has “soft-launched” its Web site ahead of the magazine (due June 1) and has been shooting rough digital video of its edit staff (in t-shirts, mainly) studying images of what appeared to be moose sex for the magazine. And no, we’re not kidding.

Marta Wohrle, Hachette VP, director of digital media, said the idea for the video was to create a connection with the reader to a magazine that is pending. “The magazine is going to be a lot less agressive than the Web site,” Wohrle told FishbowlNY. “It’s a bit of a new [magazine] genre — consumer generated photojournalism.”

The panel’s moderator, New York Times media columnist David Carr, said people are used to “people talking over each other,” also part of the new aesthetic. Perhaps we’re used to it, but do we really want to watch it?

EARLIER: NYT Carpetbagger Carr Schools Mag Execs On the New Video Aesthetic
Shock

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