Sideways Launches New Digital MagazineBy John GaffneyBefore there was Amazon there was Books.com. Before there was Jeff Bezos there was Charles Stack. So when Stack takes on something new it just might be worth some attention. One of the Internet’s underrated entrepreneurs, who sold Books.com to Barnes & Noble, is developing interactive magazines and books for the iPad and iPhone. In fact he’s starting his own company and his own magazine to capture the possibilities of the new platforms.“We’re going for rapid integration of our new product,” Stack says. “These are new platforms with new rules. When iPads and other tablets grow up they want to be something. It’s our job to help them become what they want to be.”That input will come in the form of what Stack says is the first magazine designed around and written for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Tap Tilt is now available as a $1.99 app and will take advantage of the devices' capabilities to present stories that are immersive and engaging in ways that print alone is not. For example “Green Thumb” will include a national calendar of horticultural events and a video guide to what gardeners should plant now. Art and the iPhone is an in-depth look at a popular art app, Brushes, a highly-refined form of finger painting that has been used to produce covers of The New Yorker magazine.The iPad magazine will have even more interactive content and will be called Sideways. Stack wants his publishing approach to be as interactive and flexible as the format. He likes to think of his magazines and products as experiments, with constant optimization and what he calls “agile development.” He is not afraid to fail, he says, because the ability to gain constant reader feedback means constant change.Stack’s partner is Eliza Wing, former CEO of Cleveland.com and editor at Rolling Stone, Books.com, and New York Woman. Like Stack she is an avid reader and lover of print books. While she won’t speculate on the future of local bookstores, she does believe that the interactive publishing model will generate more titles, more versions and more revenue for the entire business, in time. Example: One of the projects in development at Sideways is a book called The Doors in New York City by James Henke, music writer and chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. What if the e-book contained music downloads? What if the reader could hit video interviews with the band members? What if photos could be stretched? Would consumers pay more for that?“Digital publishing can expand the revenue scope in so many different ways,” she says. “We can develop special content at special prices. Premium editions of books can have several different price pints and even compliment the print version. Done right, the publishing business can create a platform that exploded revenue opportunities rather than destroys them.”Evenutally, say Stack and Wing, publishers will need to evaluate projects based on their social and interactive potential. They will be working the Book Expo America in New York City next week, to see how Sideways flies.