More opinion pieces based on the reports of declining iPad magazine sales have come to light. One by Mathew Ingram on the GigaOM blog widens the scope to look not just at magazines but at all those who put out content for the iPad.
Ingram quotes a blog post by venture capitalist Fred Wilson, who makes a very quotable point about the strange preoccupation some publishers have with getting their content onto the iPad:
I don’t understand why anyone would ever think that adding a presentation layer on top of web based content would make it something people would want to purchase when they are not willing to purchase the same content directly on the web.
In other words, if people aren’t willing to pay for something on the web, that they can easily quote, relink, and otherwise share with their friends, why would they pay for something even more locked down? (And certainly, why would they pay full cover price for it?)
And many of these apps don’t even try to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities that the iPad offers: they simply lock their web content up and try to charge for it.
On his “Reflections of a Newsosaur” blog, veteran journalist Alan D. Mutter makes much the same points. Discussing the Wired magazine app, to which 61% of those who purchased the most recent issue gave the lowest possible score on the iTunes store’s review chart, he writes:
The app is little more than a digital dupe of the print product, with scant interactivity to leverage the power of this sophisticated digital platform. “That’s not Wired,” said an iTunes customer identified as byron246. “It’s tired.”
And he also points out the magazines tend to be glitch-ridden, too costly, and unsubscribable. “In other words, the hassle factor is too high.”
The iPad and its apps are good for some amazing things—games, social networking, and devouring content in freer form using RSS readers and Flipboard. But publishers have to start trying to work with the iPad and play to its strengths rather than keep trying to fit their square pegs in a distinctly round hole.
An excellent article, encapsulating pretty well all of the issue that have contributed to the inevitable failure of these publications. What intrigues me is the mentality that contributed to this mess. The lack of vision. The lack of innovation. The lack of imagination. The lack of sound commercial thinking anc common sense. All of these appear to fishtail so perfectly with the same shortcoming being demonstrated by so many of the big publishing houses as regards their eBook business management.
And yet some magazines *do* appear to be doing reasonably well – the Economist, for example. App store reviews are positive (3.5 stars on iPad, 4 stars on iPhone/iTouch), and it is in the top 20 news apps. The contents aren’t significantly different from the web or print versions, except for two things: audio versions and an on-device ‘library’ for managing back issues.
Maybe this is bucking the trend in part because the print subscriber base is still quite strong (and they can get the app content at no extra cost), and the web version has never been entirely free (though the paywall is more permissive than most). So the Economist isn’t desperately trying to win back paying customers – it is just trying to make the experience better.
Two things to think about it:
1.Price and 2. Way of paying.
iPad Magazine are still expensive (some are not cheaper than the paper version. ipad magazine should be cheaper and the payment methods should be like the app-like mode
(maybe even better with some sort of paypal, etc).
The “consume” of information is changed: smaller, faster and cheaper.
I have a bunch of magazine subscriptions through Zinio. Most are just duplicates of the print versions, though usually with links to additional web content. I don’t mind this because, through Zinio, the subscription prices are about the same as the print versions. A couple of the magazines I subscribe to are very much iPad enhanced, with videos, slideshows, etc. I find National Geographic on Zinio to be an excellent multimedia magazine….enough so that I have a print subscription for the rest of the family and a Zinio subscription for me.
I have tried several of the dedicated app magazines — Wired and Project come to mind. I don’t find them compelling enough to warrant the cost or inconvenience. Zinio’s subscription and library model make it cost efficient, convenient and enjoyable.