ENTER AND EXPER'S VIEW.(Brief Article)

Greg Grimmer clicks through the launch issue of Enter, the interactive magazine for men

I first came across CD-Rom magazines via a friend in New York who was editing a magazine called Blender back in the early 90s. At the time I was bowled over by the technology but was still of the view that if I wanted to read something I'd pick up a magazine, and if I wanted to watch videos or interviews I'd turn on the television.

Fast forward eight years and I now have 200 TV channels to choose from and there has been an explosion in content provision from something called the world wide web. So surely the CD-Rom is an antiquated piece of 20th century technology?

Well, not really. Most of us in the marketing community find a use for CD-Roms as presentation leave-behinds or one-off mailshots -- but going into WH Smith and buying one? I'm struggling to see this as an impulse purchase and some of my younger colleagues are absolutely perplexed by the very notion.

But what about the new men's CD-Rom magazine Enter? Its navigation is simple and almost enjoyable; the three looped TV ads do get on my nerves very quickly but one would hope the ad sales team can expand on that in future issues. It's well put together, looks good and everything works. Although a strange trait is the numerous web links which are built in to take me out of the content stream. Is it a good idea to offer the unlimited riches of the web when I am meant to remain in the Enter ...