iPad magazine declining
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- Boz
Oh oh.. didn't see this coming..
is it the reading on iPad or the price that contributes to this decline.. thoughts?
- herzo0
Are these digital magazines just straight print rips or what?
If they are I would hope to see these magazines offer content not available in the print version. Up the ante and make them true digital interactive experiences or else its just a waste of the platform.
- DrBombay0
Many publishers are just shoveling their print content into the iPad and then trying to charge the same price that they would for the print edition. Consumers are catching onto this and aren't buying more than one issue.
- i think the digital version of wired is actually more expensive then the printrusty_ace
- akrok0
boz just got his christmas present. :-)
- Boz0
herzo.. Adobe Digital Publishing tools allow you to create interactive elements in your magazine articles (such as interactive panoramas, 360 views, videos, full html web snippets/pages etc).
It is rumored that Apple is working on something similar.
I found a few magazines to be underwhelming with interactive content. Wired is one good one but the other ones are really just print to digital replica for the most part (some have an audio here nad video there but very little).
But I think that's not the reason for decline.. I think it's because there is no value in subscriptions. You have to pay each issue now $4-$5. That's way too much, when you compare it to the fact that your print subscription is costing you less then a $1 per issue.
We'll see whether situation improves once Apple comes out with subscription based model for magazines but being greedy fucks as they are I believe they are asking for way too much from publishers to jump aboard, especially since publishers want to be able to deliver both print and digital versions for your subscription.
- herzo0
Thanks for the breakdown Boz
- benfal990
We dont want to pay anymore for music, movies, books, magazines, softwares and games.
Thats all.
- randommail0
benfal's right.
The question is where do we go from here?
- jetSkii0
I'm actually surprised that people are subscribing at $4-5 a pop. Also surprised that the iPad was able to gain 5% of a magazine's subscribers. But if you want to gain all of them....
As said many moons ago, the iPad is too expensive. its far from a new gadget anymore, the geeks who are willing to pay the price already bought one. its time for the prices to go down. i can buy a full fledged net book for $299. Kindle's device is selling like hotcakes at $149. Apple thinks since they can combine these two devices together, to sell a device that is a touch screen tablet for $499 and still stimulate a magazine reading economy?
You end up with a subscription base is only for the tech dorks who are willing to buy the device. Which probably explains why you have 3.5 times the amount of wired subscribers compared with vanity fair subscribers. In the real world, vanity fair has equal to double the amount of subscribers than wired.
It's time for Apple to come down significantly on those iPads.
- the 5% gain is blip. it will be gone shortly.Mr_Fantastic
- Well put. Likely, new iPad model prices will drop like their other gadget prices did.raf
- jfletcher0
When you can get a *print version of Time for like 39 cents a copy (through Amazon), why would you pay multiple dollars? The price is stupid, and needs to come *way down. At least thats my reason.
- gramme0
The fact that only a few digital magazines have managed to find a way to offer subscription-based service is absurd. This should've been a given right out of the gate. The problem, as I understand it, lies in the fact that until now, no products were sold through iTunes which could be recurring, i.e. subscription-based. So for the time being, occasional exceptions are being made, although the majority of digital magazines (Wired, Martha Stewart, Time, Pop Mech, etc.) are still priced iteratively. This is absurd. I'm working on one for a client right now, and for at least a couple months they won't have a subscription option available. I just hope the project doesn't get canned after a couple months because of a poor sales structure.
- In other words, iTunes isn't really set up for dealing with subscriptions. But how hard would it really be?gramme