I’m finally, officially launching my new project, Vantage Point magazine, a compact digital publication available on Apple’s Newsstand platform and produced by the great folks at Type Engine.

Why this magazine

As you’ll read in the introduction on Issue 0 of Vantage Point (the free demo issue you get when you download the app), I wanted to create a sort of Supplement for this website. A publication that could offer new materials related to the subjects I usually talk about here on Morrick.me, and also be an extension of Morrick.me by providing articles about other topics I’m interested in but rarely mention here. I want this website to stay focussed on a few selected categories and subjects, and things like book reviews, music reviews, non-tech opinion pieces, articles about movies or television series, etc., would be a bit out of place on Morrick.me. But not on a dedicated, compact digital Supplement like Vantage Point.

At the same time, I’d love to offer some degree of unpredictability, so that readers might wonder: what’s Rick going to talk about on this issue? I think it’s a good way to keep things interesting. I’m naturally curious, and Vantage Point is aimed at an audience of curious people.

Periodicity, structure, pricing

A new issue of Vantage Point will be available approximately every two weeks, and will include 4–5 articles. Two recurring elements in every issue will be:

1. An introductory Aperitif, something to stimulate the reader’s appetite. It might be a series of images, a thought, a quote, some brief observations or excerpts found on the Web or in my archives.
2. An episode of Low Fidelity, a novel I’m going to publish in serialised form (more information is available at the Crosslines//Low Fidelity website and I’ve talked about the project in more detail in this article). It is, I believe, the perfect chance to finally formalise a project I started in 1995 and subsequently left in a bit of a semi-abandoned state.

Since it’s available on Apple’s Newsstand platform, you’ll be able to read Vantage Point on any iOS device, both in portrait and landscape orientation. Together with the Type Engine staff, I did my best to offer a decent experience even on iPhones with a 3.5″ screen in portrait orientation, though text will certainly look better in landscape mode.

Subscriptions will cost $2.99 / €2.69 a month, which means each issue is going to cost you about $1.50 / €1.35, which seems a fair enough price to me.

Type Engine

This magazine wouldn’t exist without the tools and the assistance of Type Engine. Check their site to have an idea of the great service these people provide. I want to thank, in particular, Type Engine founders Jamie Smyth and Daniel Genser who have been extremely encouraging from the start and have helped me a lot in every way; Ben Moodie, who took care of the magazine’s template; David Tyner, Kelly Shaw and Debbie Lopes, who were always there to provide assistance at every step of the process. I also wanted to thank Alicia Kan for being a great motivator, especially in the early days of the project. And another thing worth mentioning: App.net played an important role in all this — without App.net, everything that led to the creation of Vantage Point wouldn’t have happened.

Final note

I really hope you’ll like Vantage Point and that you’ll want to support my writing by becoming subscribers and helping me spread the word. Thoughtful feedback is very welcome. You can reach me on Twitter and App.net as usual (I’m @morrick on both networks) or you can write an email at vp(@)morrick.me. I have also created an official Tumblr account for Vantage Point that I’ll use to list the contents of every issue and for all communications strictly related to the magazine itself.

As always, thank you for reading.

Update, 29 May 2014 — Users are reporting a few small problems with the app. I did my best to spot bugs and problems before launching the magazine but still something has managed to escape my (and Type Engine’s) attention. I’m adding all reported problems to this post on the Vantage Point official Tumblr account. I want to thank all the people who contacted me so far for their positive feedback and for making me aware of the issues. Hopefully all current problems will be fixed with the next update. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Update, November 2016 — As of end of November 2016, Vantage Point magazine has ceased publications. Thanks to everyone who subscribed and supported this project during the two years of its run!