For a technology magazine called “https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id289380413?mt=8″ app_id=”39093” target=”_blank”>Style.com has a great Web site, and one of the best magazine-esque iPhone apps around, even though it’s not exactly a magazine. Brightly colored pictures will boom on the iPad, and integrating pictures and video content is already something that Style.com does well. I’m guessing that when the big fashion magazines like Vogue (who owns style.com) and Harper’s Bazaar go iPad, they’ll want to copy some of what has made this site great.
Interesting experiments coming to an iPad near you?
Still, Style.com’s site still works more like a traditional Web site than an interactive magazine. Some Web sites have had software running for some time now that will easily transport to the iPad with a lot of success. The first would be FLYP magazine. FLYP is an online-only magazine that readers browse more or less just like a print magazine. FLYP has been way ahead of the curve, since it already combines pictures and video and works like a print magazine. What other magazine are just getting started doing now, FLYP has been at for some time now. Other magazines have been at this same game as well. Tokion magazine features it’s own flipping, interactive magazine. Jettison Quarterly (this writer’s magazine) has been online-only in an interactive format since it was founded.
The future looks wide open for digital publishing right now, and it seems magazines are feeling a little more optimistic about their chances of survival in a post-print world. Magazines will find a good home in the iPad if more develop along the lines of Wired’s iPad app. One thing that has been holding up these new digital publications has been Apple’s practice of taking a 30 percent cut of all it sells for the iPad. Digital magazines shouldn’t be short-sighted. Free downloads, I believe, are going to be essential to get readers to trade their print subscription for a digital one. Generally, magazines make their money on advertisements, not from subscriptions. Publishers should keep this in mind, because it seems they finally have a digital revenue model that could really work.
