I’ve been on the payroll long enough to recall how founder and former owner Darryl Harris used to react to receiving a new printed magazine. He would crack open the box, fresh from our printer, flip through the pages and he’d inhale the smell of ink and grin from ear to ear. Clearly he loved the aroma of a printed magazine and if I’m not mistaken this routine dated back to when Harris Publishing was first established in 1971—back when Darryl was working out of his basement with a small staff.

Even though he sold his company to his sons over a dozen plus years ago, I think we may have caught him recently in the office on the hunt for a new magazine to get a whiff of. Some habits die hard I guess.

Although my time at the company doesn’t go back nearly as far as Darryl’s tenure, I too appreciate a printed magazine. But I also recognize the evolution of our business. We live in a digital world and while some still prefer flipping through the pages of a printed magazine in bed or in their favorite chair, others would rather read Pontoon and Deck Boat magazine digitally while on the go.

As a company we saw this trend on the horizon a decade or so ago and started making our printed publications also available digitally. The only problem was our digital version had the exact same format, you “flipped” the electronic pages from side to side horizontally. It worked, but it wasn’t really ideal for tablets or smartphones and it certainly wasn’t familiar compared to the way we view other information electronically.

In an attempt to stay ahead of this trend we recently signed an exclusive agreement with VERTIQUL, a digital pioneer who offers the perfect platform for an online magazine.

Starting with this issue, our publication is now available digitally through VERTIQUL and like the name suggests, it’s formatted so you scroll vertically through the pages. Swiping up on your tablet makes a lot more sense than what we were trying to do before. Plus no more “pinching” the screen to enlarge the copy, as VERTIQUL is extremely user-friendly.

The best part might just be the embedded videos that are added to both the features and the advertisements. Actually the best part is when you click on a video it won’t redirect you to a different page like other sites do so you don’t have to worry about going down an odd path and not being able to find your way back to our magazine.

I’m excited for all of our issues to be available through VERTIQUL, but to be honest I can hardly wait for our Shootout Boat Test issue in January to be released where our videos, photos and the write-ups will all be together! This is something we’ve been dreaming of for years and it’s finally here.

Don’t worry Darryl (and everyone else who still loves the printed version of our magazine), VERTIQUL is not a replacement, but rather an additional way to enjoy reading all about our favorite types of boats. We’ll continue as we always have so the aroma of freshly-printed pages will live on, but we hope you’ll take some time to explore this new digital version that is sure to take our company VERTIQUL. Ahem, I mean vertical.