When PC Magazine shut down its print publication in 2009, it was a dark day for many, including me. I wasn?t yet Editor in Chief, but I had worked at the magazine long enough to understand PCMag?s history and importance to both the publishing and technology industries. It was the end of an era. I knew our all-digital strategy was the right one, but there were things I was going to miss about working on a print publication. I enjoyed the curation of stories each month, the glossy product shots, and the ability to serve an audience of subscribers as opposed to random?albeit welcome?Web visitors and search engines. Today, I?m excited to say that we got those things back by launching the PC Magazine iPad Edition.
We built this edition of PC Magazine specifically for the iPad, which means we were able to accomplish things that print editors can only dream of doing. In this debut issue, we offer 360-degree animations of the hottest products, raw audio from our interview with the co-founder of Kickstarter, and some of the best product photography in the business. And, most importantly, there?s the content, of course. We were able to go deeper with our stories, providing a level of detail that isn?t always practical online.
Even with all of these enhancements, we were able to keep the first issue to 70MB. I can?t promise it will never be larger than that, but I can tell you we are committed to keep the download times short. And yes, we are charging for the PC Magazine iPad app: $3.99 per issue or $19.99 for 12 issues. Try one issue and I defy you to tell me it isn?t worth $4 bucks.
Truth be told, we already enjoy a fair amount of success in digital publishing. PC Magazine has more than 50,000 paying subscribers on the Kindle, Nook, and Zinio platforms. Although those formats sometimes limit the kind of multimedia enhancements we are able to build into the iPad edition, those readers will also benefit from the recent work we?ve done, with an updated design and new editorial.
Six months ago, I asked our digital subscribers what they liked about the then current issue of the digital edition and what we could do to make it better. I got hundreds of emails, so many I couldn?t respond to all of them. But I did read them all, and we followed a lot of the advice we got from you, our readers. Make it available in the Apple news stand. Check. Longer products reviews. Check. More in-depth feature stories that help you get more from technology. Check.
To be clear, PCMag.com isn?t going anywhere. It is still the best place to go to find the latest tech news, product reviews, and technology advice. That said, reading on the iPad is different than searching on the Web. It?s a lean-back experience as opposed to a lean-forward one. And just to toot our own horn a bit, we think we?re delivering an exciting and informative experience on the iPad.
One more thing: our app is still a work in progress. The digital structure defies any simple system of page numbering and readers will have to get used to the idea of scrolling (down through a story and across to change sections ). But it will evolve. The next version rolls out in 30 days.
Until then, I invite you to buy this inaugural April issue. If you like what you see, subscribe for the whole year. And then let me know what features you want us to include.
It?ll only get better. That?s the nature of the digital platform?and our promise to you.
Source: http://economy.blogdns.net/shopping/2012/03/26/pc-magazine-debuts-on-the-ipad/
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