Editor-in-chief of Impress PC Watch Co., Ltd.

Masanobu Iseri

　Thank you for your patronage. PC Watch is the first issue today. 
　In a nutshell, PC Watch is a “web magazine that provides information related to personal computers.” Web magazines have already been realized by our predecessors, such as HOT WIRED, but the concept has not yet taken root in general. By moving away from the popular medium of paper and moving to the medium of the Web, the concept of “magazine” is being re-questioned.

　Professor Murai of Keio University has given us the words for the first issue, and he hopes that the Web magazine will be “between the Web and (paper) magazines.” I think this is a “homepage with an editing concept” if I interpret it in my own way. In other words, a Web magazine is content on the Internet that has been collected and processed under a certain context.

　Establishing proper representation in new media is not easy. I think that various people will be able to create a stable “shape” by accumulating market judgments after conducting various experiments. The “magazines,” “books,” and “televisions” that surround us are something that our predecessors have struggled to establish over the years. We would like to learn from this example and take on various challenges.

Challenge
　# 1: Get as “fast” information as possible The Web can get through the “printing and distribution” process of existing publications in an instant. In the existing monthly magazine, the reality is that no matter how hard you try, it will be delayed by about two weeks. Therefore, live information such as the price of a personal computer cannot be posted. On the Web, “editing completed = publishing”. If there is information that the store price of the personal computer has dropped, it can be posted today and the reader can go to the store in a hurry.

Challenge
　# 2: In the “space” between manufacturers and consumers, Microsoft Chairman Furukawa said “Toward the launch of PC Watch”, but existing magazines are from manufacturers to consumers due to the limitations of their media characteristics. I had no choice but to base the information flow on. I think this is because the number of consumers to be interviewed is overwhelmingly larger than that of manufacturers, and it is inefficient for publishers to interview consumers who have “thin” information. However, Internet interactivity (low cost) has the potential to solve it. We hope to provide a mechanism for exchanging information between the voices of developers and the voices of consumers who purchased them.

Challenge # 3: Reader’s “Voice”
　Recruit is famous as a company that turned content advertisements into content, but PC Watch wants to convert readers’ opinions and voices into content. For example, I think that the result of the questionnaire “What kind of computer are you using now?” Is the content that many people want to know. In the future, we plan to conduct various questionnaires on PC Watch.

Challenge
　# 4: I want to express the “concept of time” The Web is not only an immediate medium but also a storage medium. For example, the memory selling price transition graph is always up-to-date when viewed by the reader, and information before that is also accumulated. Even if you have to look at the back numbers of existing magazines, you can always compress the time axis on the Web.

　Today’s PC Watch does not realize the above. I will challenge little by little. Therefore, I think the “face” of PC Watch is constantly changing. In addition, I think that I will make various mistakes. Please understand this in advance.

　By the way, browsing the PC Watch on the Web is free, but as long as it is a commercial medium, some income is required. For the time being, we plan to operate PC Watch with advertising revenue and subscription fee for “email version PC Watch”, but if the situation changes such as the establishment of a Web billing system in the future, we will actively work on charging. I’m going. From the reader’s point of view, it’s always considered “free”, but I think it’s necessary to pay for a healthy web magazine to grow. Readers want to think about what kind of services are needed and how much they are OK through the issuance of PC Watch.

Finally, we ask for your active participation in creating new media.