Esquire Becomes First Magazine to Merge Digital Technology with Printed Pages

Cover of 75^th Anniversary Issue Will Use Electronic Paper Revolutionary October Issue Provides Glimpse into the Future of Media Ford Flex Partners with Esquire to Feature Ground-Breaking Technology

Esquire, one of America’s iconic magazines, is turning 75 this year. As part of the celebration of this milestone, the October issue will be the first magazine ever to embed a revolutionary digital technology – electronic paper – into a mass-produced print product.

In partnership with the all-new Ford Flex Crossover and in collaboration with E Ink Corporation, the world's leading supplier of electronic paper display (EPD) technologies, Esquire’s groundbreaking cover will make a profound statement about how the print medium can expand its capabilities while continuing to exploit its own unique strengths. Ford will prominently feature its highly anticipated Ford Flex on the inside cover, utilizing the same E Ink Vizplex^TM flexible display technology, in a double-page advertisement.

“This cover is both a breakthrough for magazines and an expression of the theme of our anniversary issue,” said David Granger, editor-in-chief, Esquire. “We’ve spent 16 months making this happen as one of the ways we’re demonstrating that the 21^st century begins this fall. The entire issue is devoted to exploring the ideas, people and issues that will be the foundation of the 21^st century.”

In the summer of 2007, Esquire and Hearst, Esquire’s parent company, contracted E Ink to develop a version of its electronic paper technology (which is used in devices like Amazon’s Kindle and other eBooks/eNewspapers) that could be used in a magazine. Throughout 2008, E Ink and Hearst’s manufacturing division have worked diligently to surmount the myriad manufacturing challenges the project presented. When the cover appears on newsstands in September, words and images will scroll across the flexible electronic paper display.

The team at Ford was made aware of the 75^th Anniversary Edition by Esquire last year, and there was an immediate link to the launch of the daring new Flex Crossover.