Naturally, Time wants to cover as many VR platforms as it can. On top of smartphone apps (through Google Cardboard and Gear VR) and the web, it'll make these virtual views available through the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. And Time isn't limiting itself to VR that fits Life magazine's style, either. It's introducing more 360-degree material in the fall.

This certainly isn't the first major media outlet to embrace VR. Just ask New York Times viewers who got Cardboard viewers in the mail. However, it suggests that conventional news and documentary producers are increasingly seeing VR as a way to remain in the spotlight -- it provides a hook that you don't get by reading an article online or streaming a documentary series. This only works in the long term if VR becomes more than a novelty, of course, but Time and its peers undoubtedly feel that it's worth experimenting.