Gear magazine, a pop culture magazine for men, has partnered with Digital: Convergence Corp. to offer its readers a completely Internet-enhanced consumer magazine, the publication said last week.
Digital: Convergence is an Internet technology company that offers a Cue Cat, a hand-held device about the size of a PC mouse that, along with the appropriate software, reads UPC symbols as well as barcodes placed in ads or text. When a customer swipes the device over a barcode, the customer's browser is sent to the appropriate Web page.
Digital: Convergence, Dallas, said the device spares readers the trouble of entering lengthy URLs. These devices have to be hooked up to a user's computer to function.
As a result of the partnership, every editorial page of Gear's April 2001 Music and Fashion Issue will be Internet-enhanced with a cue. Using the firm's software and Cue Cat reader, Gear readers will be able to instantly connect to Web sites related to editorial pages and advertisers' products with one swipe.
“We're very excited about expanding the Gear universe with Cue Cat and the virtually limitless promotions we'll do,” Bob Guccione Jr., Gear editor and publisher, said in a statement. “Now a magazine can be truly interactive with its readers.”
The April issue of Gear hits newsstands March 13.
