Poor David Granger. He wanted to bring flashing lights to the October issue of the septuagenarian Esquire, and he reaped hell for it. Fast Company accused him of an oversized carbon footprint. Media and marketing guru Rex Hammock called the idea the "worst use of technology by a magazine." Marshall McLuhan rose from the dead and declared it a hot-cold mindfuck. Others scoffed and mocked, but Granger is unbowed. He tells FOLIO:

"When I talk to groups I sometimes speak about the days I had when I'd get the new issue of Esquire and go through it and think to myself, ‘Fuck, it's still a magazine'... What I mean is that the medium is so compelling that I and we should all be able to do more with it. The magazine experience is one of the last remaining opportunities to enter a hermetically-sealed world, an edited experience of our culture created by someone else. And, more importantly, it's an experience that encourages you to stay in it rather than constantly bounce in and out of it."

The November issue will be a laptop with no Internet access but plenty of Scarlett Johansson JPEGs. [Folio]