iPad magazines: Predictable publisher road-crash

Adam Tinworth says magazine publishers failed with the iPad because they focused on protecting business models. They should have poured their energies into delivering a better reader experience. See: iPad Magazines: a predictable publisher road-crash.

There was a time when publishers, including Rupert Murdoch, hailed the iPad as the industry’s saviour. The idea that the iPad would rescue publishers was never convincing.

Readers are not impressed by digital facsimiles of paper magazines. Hardly anyone subscribes. Publishers rarely did more with the iPad format. There was little or no added value.

Where is the innovative design?

At the same time, while print magazine publishers often invested heavily in the look and feel of their paper products, most iPad magazines looked more or less the same. There was little in the way of innovative designs.

When the iPad first arrived, I spent time playing with Apple's digital publishing tools because I thought there might be a better way of delivering digital content to readers. I was attracted by the idea of distributing publications through iTunes and the digital creation tools were high quality and easy to use.

Yet it became clear that the cost and effort of producing a great looking iPad magazine wouldn’t pay off for a New Zealand publisher catering for a small audience. Scale is an issue. You'd need a big, guaranteed audience to justify spending on the design skills needed to make the most of the format.