Print magazines are usually printed on...well, on paper.  And their covers on glossy paper.  But the cover of the next issue of Japan +81, which focuses on creativity around the world, will consist of bubble wrap.  And instead of print, the cover text – “The Next Creativity” – was created by injecting individual air bubbles with colored water.  “We’re not sure how the cover held up in mailings,” wonders psfk’s Allie Walker.

3-D TV sales have flattened, so the industry is moving on to “sharper and brighter” 4K – or Ultra High-Definition Television.  Europe’s Canal Plus and Sky Deutschland are already planning dedicated UHTV channels, Michael Grotticelli reports.  If you’re wondering, 4K has resolution of 3840 x 2160, but Japan’s NHK is already working on 8K (7680 x 4320). (This compares with current HDTV’s 1920 x1080).  While 8K won’t be around for another eight years or so, 4K was already being demonstrated on the floor of the IBC show in Amsterdam this week.  

The Chicago Tribune has cut the number of its 22 TribLocal weekly print inserts by about half, Lynne Marek reports.  All the local regions are still being covered, she says, but the coverage has been consolidated – rather than a separate insert, for instance, news about Evanston now appears in a North Shore edition. The cutbacks come in the wake of the Tribune’s “indefinite” July suspension of Journatic LLC, which had produced the inserts.  Journatic, a Chicago-based startup which specializes in local coverage for newspapers around the country, has been accused of fake bylines and plagarism.  The Tribune, which …

As USA Today approaches its 30th anniversary, its chances for survival look less likely even as its owner, Gannett, seeks to "resuscitate the now-iconic brand" with new hires in both the publisher and editor in chief spot, writes  journalism professor John K. Hartman, who has authored two books on the newspaper. Still, Hartman offers "30 points to ponder," some hopeful, some not, including the fact that "the entertainment section of USA Today has surpassed the sports section as the most impactful and influential." 

In "a cooperative effort between corporate siblings" -- a broadcast and a pay cable network -- CBS' "60 Minutes" will produce a monthly sports newsmagazine featuring a mix of specially created content as well as updated stories from the "60 Minutes" archive, which will appear on Showtime starting in November, writes Brian Stelter. "The new program may be a sign of Showtime’s eagerness to challenge its bigger rival HBO in the category of sports," he adds. "For many years HBO has televised a monthly sports newsmagazine, 'Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.'"

Nintendo's Wii U TVii, set to go on sale in November, will offer "on-demand video from Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon as well as some interesting second-screen action for live TV consumption," writes Janko Roettgers. "It will... tap into your TiVo library and even deliver game stats, tweets and other info to the second screen while watching a sports event on live TV."

Here's a doozy of an out-of-season "Mad Men" piece, whose news peg is the upcoming Emmys  and the good chance that the show will win another award for Outstanding Drama Series. This Q&A with four actors whose story arcs have ended includes some juicy quotes, from Bryan Batt's fantasy about his character Sal on Fire Island (see headline) to Michael Gladis' story about how he was shielded from view while shooting his comeback scene as Paul in Hare Krishna robes: "I literally had to wear a floor-length trench coat over my Hare Krishna robes and have an umbrella over me …

Why are newspaper headlines "so oppressively boring?" asks Conor Friedersdorf. "Maybe this is why newspapers are failing," is the headline to this piece -- definitely not as boring as the sampling of Sept. 10 front-page headlines from papers around the country but not just "obscure newspapers in tiny towns largely unknown to the broader world," either, but papers like The Miami Herald.

An update of cult movie fave "Heathers" -- where Winona Ryder's character Veronica has a daughter aggravated by the current generation of mean girls, now named "the Ashleys" -- is among the five more scripted dramas Bravo announced.

It's VHI's reality show "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta," which tracked the most social activity among all shows, both broadcast and cable (excluding sports), according to Trendrr.  "Hip Hop" had a 302% increase in social activity over its last season by using major social media, the VHI Web site and Co-Star, the channel's co-viewing second screen app, with such tactics as "live chats with fans on VH1.com, polls and other interactive activities on Facebook, Twitter and VH1.com, having talent from the show live tweet and re-tweet fans during live episodes," an exec tells Lost Remote.