Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

For me, nothing has ever replaced the experience or excitement that I receive when I realize my favorite magazine has just arrived in the mail. While it’s obvious that I’m the sort of person who gets their news online, nothing has replaced the experience of reading a magazine in print editon. Yes, the same articles appear on the Web sites, but even the best magazines in the industry fail to have Web sites that can accurately simulate the experience you feel when holding the magazines in your hands — the photos, the layout, the colors, and the glossy feeling that you are looking at something exclusive just can’t be experienced the same way on Web.

I never thought this was any one particular magazines’ fault. I often felt that if by some strike of insanity I was made Web Editor of Vanity Fair overnight (hey, there’s no harm in dreaming!) how I would try to translate the print experience onto its site. I’ve come up with several ideas, but none seemed to be an all-encompassing solution.

When I saw the video above lightbulbs went off. Of course, we all know mobile apps and various forms of mobile technology are what everyone is focusing on now, but a color tablet could be the perfect medium for magazines to make the leap into the 21st century.

Not to mention, the obvious cost factor involved in this. Would I pay to read a magazine article online that I could read in print? No. For magazines, it’s nowhere near the same experience. In fact, magazines are the one print medium I prefer to read in the print edition, no matter how dire my obsession with online journalism is.

But would I pay to read my favorite magazines in a capacity that is insanely similar to its print edition? Yes, I would. This surprises me to say, because I’ve always been an advocate against paywalls and a believer in the power of FREE online, but really? A mobile version of a magazine that is nearly identical to its print version and in fact less cumbersome than its print counterpart IS something I would pay for.

The big magazine publishers need to start on their development of making this happen and finding various ways to monetize it. Mobile technology is truly the only way magazines are going to be able to make it in the coming years, as they offer something newspapers don’t have: experience.