iPad 2 stimulates digital magazines

Tablets urge the magazine business to be innovative. For a long time, it seemed as if people wanted to keep the experience of reading a printed magazine. This now seems to turn and tablets become more and more important in digital reading.

The iPad 2 is recently launched in the United States and is becoming a new success story. The new iPad is faster, thinner and lighter and has extra cameras to improve videoconferencing. Experts even expect the sales of this iPad 2 to outperform the previous version. It will be available in the Netherlands from the 25th of March. Since the iPad is perfect for reading, it’s about time that magazine publishers nestle in this business!

Tech magazine Bright has recently developed a new magazine app for the iPad. Bright Screenzine is distinct from other magazine apps because the content differs from their printed magazine. It is a, complementary, digital magazine only! However, reviewing customers on the website of Apple aren’t that enthusiastic about it yet. They are doubtful whether it is worth paying for. The payment of online material is still a difficult issue for commercial companies such as Bright. Since most online products are for free, the customer has high expectations of an online magazine purchase.

Most Dutch magazine apps that I find on the internet are for free. There are several virtual newsstands such as Zinio, but there are only few entire app-supported magazines. Last year I went to a seminar about the innovation of magazines for my HBO graduate internship at Label strategic media. One of the spokesmen was from Bonnier, which is a Swedish publisher who was one of the first to publish an iPad app for their magazine. The audience of publishers differed in their opinions whether these innovations affect the magazine business positively or negatively.

On the one hand there are doubts of publishers, who are generally traditional and used to printed magazines. However, they realise they need to anticipate on these new technologies. On the other hand there are doubts of readers about whether they should pay for it or not. Perhaps the magazine business needs to find other ways to gain money, e.g. advertising or special memberships. The iPad 2 is certainly a new stimulus to explore these options!