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Just in Time

well looks like i'll wait to renew my mens health subscription, once again MR saves me some money
 
Its obvious the NYT are being groomed for the new way of working (portrait handheld screens).

Portrait has been the news form factor since the dailies first took off after the great fire of london (Lost - cat, house, street) - its good to have it back, feels right.

And now with a comfortable device to flick around, the dailies are looking to revitalise their readership in a brave new world.

This isn't about the tech - this is about the experience.

"reading" periodicals isn't like research - its not goal oriented.
Is a function of enjoying a period of leisure time

Noone wants to be restricted to reading a newspaper suspended upright in front of their eyes sat bolt upright on a work chair. Its not that relaxing, and the cat can't sit on your lap without falling off.

Papers do need to sort out multiple licences though - divvying up the sundays between the family is a tradition we should not be denied!
 
My problem with magazines on the iPad is simply, how does digital distribution overcome the thing that's killed magazines in the first place? Specifically, by the time you assemble a magazine's worth of content, its already out of date. And if you're going to have live updates, then isn't this just a web site that you pay for by the unit?

Magazines for me are more about the editorial, the features and the professional interviews. Rather than up-to-the-minutes "news".
 
Yes, Magazines are more about depth of content.

Try not to think of it as work: a fact finding research where you stop as when you have accomplished your mission

Think of it instead as leisure: "taking some time out" to think out about something you are interested in.
 
FWIW, Zinio has the following subscriptions:

- Playboy

- Penthouse

Once they translate them for the iPhone/iPod touch, they will be available there as well. One subscription for all platforms. :)
 
I think what could undercut Apple in its efforts to get magazines and newspapers onto the iPad is the potential threat of a tablet computer based on Google's Chrome OS plus Android features.

Unlike the iPad, Chrome OS will likely allow Adobe Flash, and that could open up the tablet to stream video from some very popular sites on the Internet (Hulu.com, Fancast.com, ESPN360.com, and Crunchyroll.com). One even more frightening aspect is because Google will want extremely cheap to free pricing for Chrome OS, tablet computers based on Chrome OS will cost quite a bit less, too.
 
Another quote for the ages

So with Steve flying all over the country pimping his new toy to newspaper and magazine vendors and with the introduction of iBooks as one of the crowning glories of the iPad can we add a new quote to the list of all time crow eating quotes?

Steve Ballmer - "$500 for a phone!" on the introduction of the iPhone

Steve Jobs - "Nobody reads books anymore." on the introduction of the Kindle
 
I think what could undercut Apple in its efforts to get magazines and newspapers onto the iPad is the potential threat of a tablet computer based on Google's Chrome OS plus Android features.

True - but that threat is all potential at the moment.

Google haven't proved themselves in the hardware market, the software's only advantage over apple's is price unlike the putative chrome tablets - the iPad is out soon and it's the gadget celebre of the moment.

If I was looking at a portfolio of magazines I was looking to boost in the next financial year - a whisper of a prototype would not hold me back from hopping on this year's big thing like a titanic passenger on a buoyant dowager.

I think the key issue Jobs will be pressing is that there is more to web content than flash.
 
Steve Jobs - "Nobody reads books anymore." on the introduction of the Kindle

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore."

That is why the iPad does a heck of a lot more than just read books - catch that extra 40%. :D

If you were a student, you could buy a kindle, but you would still need a laptop to play movies, browse the net, listen to music, send emails, write documents, plan household finances, create presentations etc.
 
The NYT should consider charging $4.99 for the app and serving ads in the app (similar to how they lay them out in the physical paper) using Apple’s forthcoming ad platform instead of a subscription. I would much prefer that to paying a subscription every month.

I would prefer paying $4.99 once for a lifetime supply of trousers, but it isn't going to happen. The NYT is losing money with today's model, and they have already announced they are going to a paid subscription model next year.
 
iPad Periodical Media will need to be brokered like cable TV

I think for this to be succesful, the iPad Media will need to be similar to cable TV.

For a given monthly fee you get a certain suite of iPad magazine/newspaper subscriptions.

You could then bundle them according finacials (Wired, WSJ, ect.), sports (ESPN, SI, ect.) and so on...
 
my 2 cents

One Idea came up to me light a flash of light.. about the big picture.. ok, so steve wants the NYT (among other magazine) to rebuild themselves to be perfectly fitted with the ipad. So that means perfect layout on the perfect screen, right? When we will get this, we will understand how cool and better is the website if seen through the "eyes" of an ipad.

So, now, let's try to go further.. what about asking let's say.. "gamespot.com" to rebuild themselves for an ipad version...
then what about ANY site that could have his own perfectly fitted layout, that has a printed media level, prefectly fitted for the user hardware?

My guess is that Steve is not trying to revive the printed media.. he's trying to create a whole new way of surfing the web, creating a device that will, eventually, shape the web using html5 among other things.

THAT could be the ipad revolution.

then, with a new proprietary format, you could be able to "download" the website via a "webstore", on his perfet layout made for the ipad, instead of watching it through a browser...
 
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore."

That is why the iPad does a heck of a lot more than just read books - catch that extra 40%. :D

If you were a student, you could buy a kindle, but you would still need a laptop to play movies, browse the net, listen to music, send emails, write documents, plan household finances, create presentations etc.

I can see that that makes sense.. when relating to paper books and materials. How many people do you think read websites, blogs, news-sites and other types of material. The reason people don't read books is because they forgot what it is like to sit down and relax. I bet you there are a ton of people out there who wouldn't read a paper book but that will read an eBook/Magazine. I can say there are magazines that I would subscribe too (Photoshop Creative, etc) that are just too expensive to subscribe to because of all the color print in them that would be a WAY better experience in an eMag. The tutorials having written guides and video guides would be priceless.

Again people don't read because it's hard for them to sit down and be still with no flashly lights or anything in front of their faces. People will read on an iPad that won't read a book.
 
Turned my monitor on it's side today at work, actually quite good for working. Apart from it being a dell monitor. The lateral veiwing angle is fierce thin. It's like watching avatar with the glasses on back to front.
 
My problem with magazines on the iPad is simply, how does digital distribution overcome the thing that's killed magazines in the first place? Specifically, by the time you assemble a magazine's worth of content, its already out of date. And if you're going to have live updates, then isn't this just a web site that you pay for by the unit?

You're also only considering news magazines. What about tech, health, auto, special interests etc.. Etc... They have plenty of information that remains relevant for months if not years, and having that information collected in one place has value. I remember several times reading things in magazines that I didnt know I needed/ wanted to know until after I read them.
 
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