The industry is buzzing about today’s announcement of a digital storefront for publishers (read the AdAge story here), but that’s not the only thing going on in the print-to-digital content world…
Conde Nast and Adobe are building a digital version of Wired magazine, according to the Wall Street Journal. The e-reader app will be available sometime next year, and then Conde Nast will move on to building apps for the rest of its titles. The app will let readers flip through the pages as if they were in print, as well as access additional layers of content, launch videos, and link to the Web. Read the Wall Street Journal Story here.
Meanwhile, Hearst is launching a service and online store in 2010 that will deliver newspapers and magazines from a variety of publishers on a variety of electronic devices. Called Skiff, the service will work with Sprint to connect readers through dedicated Skiff e-readers sold in Sprint stores, as well as other devices. Read the FOLIO story here.
Industry buzz apps, content, digital, e-readers, magazine, Wired
The release of the new, upgraded iPhone last week might mean the dawn of a new digital content distribution channel. The first publisher to get its feet wet with the upgraded phone? Men’s Health magazine, which is selling an app that offers workout regimens and exercises to try. But it’s not just a novelty app—where you download it, use it, then forget about it. The new iPhone’s apps allow for continuous upgrades and new features to be added (in the Men’s Health case, new workouts) for additional fees, allowing publishers an outlet for a constant stream of content and a constant stream of revenue. The Men’s Health app, reports AdAge, is selling for $1.99, and additional sets of workouts will go for 99 cents.
Industry buzz app, apps, content, iPhone, revenue
With advertising revenues down, publishers are increasingly investigating non-advertising ways to bring in additional revenue, such as raising subscription and newsstand pricing and cutting rate bases, like New York just did this week. Another small light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of the iPhone, as iPhone applications created by – and touted by – magazine brands are gaining in popularity and bringing publishers just a smidgen more much-needed cash flow. By bringing the right amount of exclusive content to readers, and making it interactive and functional enough so that people will want to pay for it, magazine publishers might be on the right track with their iPhone apps. MediaWeek reported this week that Hachette Filipacchi Media, the parent of brands such as Elle and Car & Drive, are launching iPhone apps later this year that will focus on shopping and cars. Also, Meredith Corp., which has lifestyle titles like Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle, plans to launch apps focused on food, parenting and fitness. Apps run the gamut of prices, from free to ad-supported, to $5 or $10 a pop, to bundle subscription-based “premium” features that are added onto free apps. We applaud publishers not stemming the flow of great content, but instead finding new outlets for it.
Industry buzz applications, apps, content, Hachette Filipacchi, iPhone, Meredith, revenue
Check this out. Artist Jorge Colombo drew this week’s New Yorker magazine cover on his iPhone, using a $5 application called Brushes. He simply stood outside Madame Tussaud’s in Times Square and cranked it out in an hour. Check out the video of the cover being created, step by step, here. People passing him in Times Square probably thought he was simply checking his email or phone messages. “I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself,” Colombo told the New Yorker website. A new drawing from Colombo will appear each week on the New Yorker’s website.
Industry buzz application, apps, art, Brushes, cover, iPhone, New Yorker
Apps aside, will the iPhone become the new digital medium for magazine content? Perhaps iTunes will become a virtual newsstand for magazines, bringing the newest issues straight through to your iPhone. In a recent article in AdAge, publishers say the idea isn’t so far-fetched. “iTunes is a great marketplace for entertainment, movies, music, TV, even books. Magazines are actually conspicuous in their absence,” Ryan McConville, publisher of Bauer Teen Magazines, told AdAge.
If you think it would be hard—virtually impossible—to translate a magazine spread onto such a small screen, don’t blink. Companies are already hard at work figuring out a way to do just that. One such company, called Bite Sized Candy, is working with Condé Nast and Hearst to provide magazine content to the iPhone via iTunes—and they’re looking at launching the solution this summer. Can’t wait to see it!
Industry buzz apps, Conde Nast, content, digital, Hearst, iPhone, iTunes, print
