Project: Virgin’s First Dedicated Magazine for iPad
I still remember few years back when Microsoft first introduced Encarta, its first enticing multimedia encyclopedia, where text contents are embedded with audio and video, unfortunately the technology was not yet ready for such project to take off. The recent Apple iPad seems to have technology needed, from the intuitive gesture-based responsiveness, portability, long life battery, great display and ready ecosystem (as Steve Jobs referred to as “go to market strategy” ), to be used as platform to consume information. And more importantly, both consumer and publishers seem to embrace the platform.
Since the launch of the iPad, many publishers such Popular Mechanics and MacLife have created sample of interactive magazine or Zinio to distribute and sale the print version of magazine transformed in digital. Flipboard to curate Web contents and transform to iPad friendly format.
The latest projects come from News Corp. and Virgin. Both companies have dedicated editorial teams to create a version of daily news paper and a monthly magazine available for purchase.
At a New York City press conference on Tuesday, Virgin CEO Richard Branson and his editorial team introduced Virgin’s new digital publication for iPad, the monthly magazine called Project focusing on technology, entrepreneurs, design, and entertainment, and will profile influential people in these fields.
User can fist download the Project library app for free and purchase issues at $2.99 each. There 3 versions of the same issue are available: UK, Canada and USA
The company promises the contents of each issue will evolve throughout the month, with updates made incrementally on a regular basis until the next issue comes out. There is no subscription plan at the moment but I am sure that Apple is working on the payment infrastructure for it. New Corp. digital publication for the iPad might be postponed until 2011 according to rumors.
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Hi SolSie,
I just saw your post about Project magazine. Very good point you made about how
the success of new endeavors depends on the timing of technology and consumer
acceptance (e.g., Encarta). From videos and reviews that I’ve seen, it
seems that Project is making excellent use of compelling rich media, and I do
hope it succeeds. Their content will have to stay relevant and engaging for
this to happen. This magazine will have huge effects on the future of
publishing, and I look forward to seeing how it will evolve.
I wanted to share a video with you from Newsy.com that I thought you might find
interesting. It analyzes the recent coverage from multiple sources about the
Project magazine debut and compiles it into one story:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/virgin-releases-tablet-only-project-magazine/. It
includes interview clips from creator Sir Richard Branson and discusses
what’s coming next from the competition. It also includes the mixed
opinions from other tech experts about the design, functionality and content of
this tablet-only magazine. I thought it would be very relevant for many of your
readers and hope you might consider embedding this video in your blog.
Thanks so much for your time. Please let me know if you have any questions or
comments.
Kate Kerans