I was reading an article on dismal GQ Magazine sales figures on the iPad (albeit for an older copy) and I really started to think, I can see the iPad being benefical for news consumption but can the same be said about magazines?
It is natural for publishers to flock to digital mediums, with far lower distribution and the total elimination of printing costs. Selling magazines on the iPad makes even more sense, for once publishers may turn a profit on cover prices. They must be foaming at the mouth! However the internet is a graveyard of failed web-magazine startups and traditional media transitions. Unless there are some huge culture and distribution changes the iPad will hardly be different.
Why? There are two reasons that come to mind.
- Moving to the internet made sense not just to reduce distribution costs but because publishers could still collect the demographic information necessary to tailor content and provide relevant advertising. The problem with the iPad is Jobs et. al. are very unwilling to share this information and in many ways prohibit a publications relationship with its readers, the real essence to success.
- The core issue is that we are a still a tangible society. We like to see and feel things. Why do you think so many web magazines fail? Yes many made that transition with music but magazines are different. Most magazines sit on a coffee table and we browse through them when we have a few minutes (the same can not be said for news consumption). Not only is the iPad trying to change distribution but the fundamental way in which we consume magazine content. I’m not sure if the masses are ready for this change and, even if they are, publishers will have lost that relationship and lose either way.
Maybe, instead and as a stopgap the iPad is providing a way to monetize the older, back catalogue content which until now has not been entirely profitable for publishers.
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A couple of things I might add.
“However the internet is a graveyard of failed web-magazine startups and traditional media transitions. “
The internet is a graveyard of failed startups – period. Established media entities get a lot of flack for stumbling in the transition, but has everyone. So what.
I disagree with your premise that magazines will fail on the iPad because of the tactile differences between the two media.
I think what will determine the degree of success (or lack thereof) specific magazines will have on the iPad is the same thing that determined their success online in general: their ability to leverage their brand on a new medium, while recognizing that medium is fundamentally different from a printed magazine.
G'day Matt,
Somehow I missed this comment but thanks for dropping by! Everybody certainly has failed on the internet but media entities were more relevant to the article. Comapnies fail every, period.
Yes, their ability to leverage a brand will certainly be important. My point is that the iPad alone is not going to be the saviour which is certainly the hype and reputation it gets.
Cheers,
Alex
Re #2) I think you are saying the iPad isn't tangible, but why? The reason why web magazines mostly failed isn't because of the medium, it failed because of how we were accessing that medium. That is what the iPad is changing. Think of when do you usually read a magazine? train, plane, beach, doctor's office, etc. (you aren't at a computer) that is why I think web magazines didn't succeed. The iPad will not save publishing as it exists today, these portable, touch based devices will create a new era of publishing and bury the existing model. The new era will be more portable, indexable, social, interactive, knows who you are, and where you are.
http://elshawwa.blogspot.com/2010/03/print-is-s...
I think the only exception will be neighbourhood publications; small and local.
Hi. Great to connect with you here (not just Twitter!)
I think that we like to own and hold things. An iPad does this but kind of. I'm not denying that we will eventually change, my point was that the iPad will not be why. At best it will start a ball rolling and get us to start thinking about the possibilities, which seems to be where your head is at anyway
I see your point. Just like “fire” got the ball rolling for all sorts of other things: warmth, cooking, metallurgy, etc. :p
Ha ha that is a little bit of a stretch but yes. All the ipad will do is get us to start thinking about these things. Better products will come along.
agreed :p better fires came along too, lol.
Its definitely the best publishing medium out there today, it won't be the last of course.
iPad will not save publishing, but portable information consuming tablets just could.
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