Taptu CEO Mitch Lazar has a guest post on TechCrunch discussing four major errors that publishers make when importing content to tablets. These mistakes include developing their own platform rather than using one that other companies’ development teams have already made, not enabling social network sharing of their content which could expose it to a wider audience, not creating new brands for their digital content, and concentrating on traditional SEO rather than trying to appeal to new social methods of search (such as, for example, Taptu). It’s interesting just how much emphasis experts are placing on taking advantage of...

From Ad Week: At Hearst Magazines, for example, 30 percent of its single copies sold on tablets are back issues, according to president David Carey. Hearst sells digital editions of lots of its brands including Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Popular Mechanics on the iPad, and with single issues representing 10 percent to 15 percent of its digital editions volume, back issues make up some 4 percent of the total. Carey calls back issues the “long tail” of digital editions. “Like book publishers, we’re making our ‘back list’ more easily accessed by readers,” he emailed. “Much of the...

Nieman Journalism Lab's Editor’s Note: We’re wrapping up 2011 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. To kick things off, it’s Nicholas Carr, the veteran technology writer, whose most recent book — The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains — was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize. For years now, the line between the software business and the media business has been blurring. Software applications used to take the form of packaged goods, sold through retail outlets at set prices. Today, as a result of cloud computing and other advances,...

That's what an article in Reuters says about subscriptions on the ipad. "We do expect in 2012 at some point to be able to have more than a million on e-subscriptions," Hearst Magazine President David Carey said. The division now has about 400,000 digital subscribers to Cosmopolitan, Esquire and its other titles. Carey gave the projection during the Reuters Global Media Summit just as Hearst rival Time Inc announced a new chief executive to replace Jack Griffin, who was ousted in February after five months on the job. ... Hearst's digital strategy differs from its competitors in that it charges for digital subscriptions whether or not...

From the press release: VIVMag, the all-digital, luxury lifestyle magazine for women, has been awarded the Eddie for "Best Digital Edition" in the consumer category in FOLIO: Magazine's 2011 Eddie Awards.  The awards program celebrates excellence in magazine editorial.  VIVMag's March/April 2011 issue featuring actress Jane Leeves on the cover secured the award honors for the publication. "VIVMag does things differently. While committed to creating beautiful covers and stories, we combine these with interactive components, including audio and video, to provide a truly engaging experience for our readers," said Anne M. Russell, editor-in-chief, VIVMag. "Taking home...

From ZDNet: Apple’s Newsstand for iOS has only been open to the public for a few weeks, and already the mobile app is proving to be a wild success for digital publishing. Conde Nast might be reaping the most rewards at the moment as magazine publishing house saw a 268 percent increase in digital subscription sales since Newsstand rolled out with iOS 5 on October 12. Following this rapid success, Conde Nast is also planning to bring three more of its heavyweight titles to Apple’s tablet, including Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, and the grande dame of them all,Vogue. UPDATE: The rub is...

I actually saw this on the nightly news last night when visiting my parents: a video making the rounds on YouTube featuring a 1-year-old who plays with an iPad, then gets confused and disappointed when paper magazines don’t respond the same way to being tapped or slid on. “For my 1-year-old daughter, a magazine is an iPad that does not work,” says the video’s poster. “It will remain so for her whole life. Steve Jobs has coded a part of her OS.” On the other hand, he could be reading too much into it. One of the...

As Hurricane Irene approaches the upper east coast, property damage is of course a key concern—but Hurricane Irene is also, at least temporarily, knocking down some virtual walls—paywalls. Laura Hazard Owen reports on PaidContent that the New York Times and Newsday.com are both making hurricane coverage available to all readers for free. E-magazine service Zinio is also offering free issues of several electronic magazines to travelers stranded by the hurricane. Of course, the usefulness of these free services depends on people being able to keep their connectivity during the storm. USA Today has a guide suggesting ways for...

From the press release: Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced today it is enhancing its best-in-class NOOK Newsstand, giving NOOK Color customers even more interactive versions of the country's favorite magazines and newspapers.  With the addition of top titles including FORTUNE, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, TIME, Parents and Fitness magazines, Barnes & Noble now offers more top 100 magazines than any other digital newsstand service.  These newly added titles include a selection of interactive special editions optimized for NOOK Color's stunning 7-inch color touchscreen with all the print magazine...

From Mobileburn: Starting with next months issue, Reader's Digest will be the latest print magazine to offer regular monthly editions for Apple's iPad tablet. Readers will be able to subscribe to the digital magazine for a full year, or purchase issues individually. Reader's Digest is offering six months of the iPad version for free to those who have subscribed to the print edition of the magazine. After that, users will need to fork over $1.99 per issue, or $14.99 for a yearly subscription to continue reading the magazine on their iPads. ...

The mediaIDEAS blog is publishing the results of the Spring, 2011 American Magazine Study done by Affinity.  Here are the top 10: Affinity Managing Director Tom Robinson considers “most innovative” to be an especially telling attribute in terms of looking at theprospects for digital magazines, because, “magazines are now competing with all of the content and advertising available in digital form, not just their traditional set of print competitors. Only those brands that leverage the latest technologies in creative ways and offer consumers interactive and meaningful experiences will stand out among digital users.” Most Innovative Digital Magazines 1. Dwell 2. Popular Science 3. Architectural Digest 4....

That the title if an article in the mediaIDEAS blog.  The author says that The New Yorker, unlike many digital magazines, is doing very well.  Why? However, The New Yorker is actually doing quite well. It currently has a readership of 100,000 on the iPad. And 20 percent of those are paying $60 per year for a subscription. Their secret? According to Deputy editor Pamela Maffei McCarthy, less is more. With The New Yorker still growing, however, it looks like it has stumbled on a formula for success. What’s the key? Keeping it simple, apparently. Deputy editor Pamela Maffei McCarthy said the magazine’s goal...