• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 27, 2015

Printed magazines aren’t dead, but one is flipping its format to look more like a digital edition, at least for one week. The June 8th edition of Crain Communications’ Autoweek will be published horizontally instead of vertically, making it look more like a responsive design, even if you cannot actually swipe it.

“But I would submit this is an analog responsive design,” quips AW Publisher Dutch Mandel in a statement announcing the stunt. “People consume photos both horizontally and vertically on their digital devices. Why shouldn’t you expect that with your magazines as well?”

Okay -- so publishing printed magazines horizontally has been done before. That’s not the point. It’s that printed magazines are the original digital interactive medium: You use two digits (your thumb and forefinger) to interact with them by turning their pages. That’s true whichever way they’re published.