Kindle and Nook head ereader sales

That's according to The State Of The App, a report by McPheters & Company comprised from its iMonitor database of information about 4,000 news and magazine apps.
That makes Nook Newsstand and Zinio the second most popular platform for publishers after iOS (not including the web). And Nook added the most publishers between May and August.
Where does that leave Android apps? Still languishing. only 21 percent of U.S. magazine publishers are currently distributing through Android apps, according to McPheters.
However, it may be true to say that other platforms like Nook and Zinio are more likely to play host to replica page-turners than dedicated interactive app editions, as iPad editions are.
"Unfortunately, the majority of magazine apps are still minimally enhanced PDF replicas, and it seems as if the advent of the iOS Newsstand - and perhaps the Kindle Fire - may be contributing to an increasing trend in this direction," according to the McPheters report. "The publications available on the Fire are likely to skew heavily towards replicas."
McPheters founder Rebecca McPheters tells paidContent: "Since mid-October, we have seen a spate of replicas from publishers like Hearst and Time Inc. that had previously published mostly high-quality apps that take full advantage of the iPad's capabilities."

Amazon on Fire

Amazon have announced thatthe new Kindle Fire will include a “Newsstand” selling subscriptions and issues of 400 digital magazines and newspapers. Most of the major publishers on the magazine side will be represented in the Newsstand: Conde Nast, Hearst., National Geographic, Meredith, Wenner, Reader’s Digest, etc. Early customers will get a special promotion from Conde Nast, a three month free trial subscription to its 17 titles.

Conde Nast Digital Sales Increase

Conde Nast is the latest magazine publisher to be boosted by Newsstand, the new feature in iOS 5 that lets you buy and read magazines. Since Newsstand was launched on the iPad, several Conde Nast titles have seen sales soar.

According to Electronista , subscriptions to magazines like The New Yorker and GQ have skyrocketed by a whopping 268 percent in the two weeks since Newsstand launched with iOS 5. Single-issue sales have also benefitted, making a 142 percent jump.

Conde Nast executive vice president of marketing Monica Ray told Electronista that Newsstand’s design has helped. Placing the app on the home screen has given “focused attention” to Newsstand and made it simpler for people to access magazines. This exposure seems to be invaluable for magazine publishers, most of whom have struggled to get people to read their products on the iPad.

Ray said Conde is “very optimistic that [it] will see a consistently higher level of growth going forward than [it] did prior to [Newsstand’s] introduction.”

Magazines Flex Their Apps -- But Will They Make Any Money From Them?

Interesting article on digital magazines and tablet versions

How Conde Nast create iPad Apps

As the man tasked with giving new life to magazines on new platforms for Condé Nast, Scott Dadich says there are some things, old-school things, that don't change whether you're dealing with print or tablets.

HP to Launch Digital App Magazine

In an effort to differentiate its upcoming TouchPad tablet from competitors like the iPad and Android tablets, HP today announced that it would launch a digital magazine to accompany the device, made to showcase apps for the operating system, webOS 3.0.



HP describes the magazine, called HP Pivot, as an "entertaining and informative editorial resource for discovering webOS 3.0 applications." Besides reviews of apps, HP Pivot will profile top developers, HP said in a press release. The editorial will include original content from journalists associated with various publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Fast Company, New York magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Tattler and more, an HP spokesman told PCMag.

Condé leapfrogs Hearst in iPad digital mag derby

Condé will actually beat rival Hearst in the iPad subscription derby. Hearst said yesterday it was going to start selling subscriptions and single copies of Esquire, O: the Oprah Magazine and Popular Mechanics via the iPad effective with the July issues, available sometime next month.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/conde_leapfrogs_hearst_in_ipad_digital_bgkiHuL47Frm9mB4y2V3RI#ixzz1LZmDuUcR

E Book sales soar - are magazines set to follow ?

Sales of digital books are soaring in the UK, figures from the Publishers Association show.

The association said that in 2010 sales of e-books and audio book downloads in the "general titles" category, which includes novels and consumer titles, shot up from £4m to £16m.

Academic and professional books still dominated overall digital sales, which reached £180m last year.

Apple to produce magazine app for iPad ?

Apple might be making it a little easier to build a magazine on the iPad via a new publishing template with Xcode, its developer environment and toolkit.
According to a Gadget Daily News report, Apple is planning to release a template that will "create a familiar, consistent user interface" and "facilitate in-app purchases for subscriptions and back issues."

Apple is already halfway there. Last month, the company unveiled a long-awaited subscription model for App Store publications.

Read more

Current digital magazines - epic fail !!

A nice piece today from the New York Times, talking about the race between print and digital magazines.



The writer notes that in the time it took him to drive to the shops to buy the latest issue of Wired, the digital version still hadn't downloaded to his iPad...

His conclusion ? That current digital products are still based on an old business model and are too big and bulky

iPad magazines need a new blue print

TechCrunch have a new view on how the transition from print to pad is going - and guess what ? Ain't good news for publishers

The customized magazine model hits paydirt

Interesting piece on how MyGazines has revived its business model

UK publishers should be damned for their iPad applications

The best magazine I have ever read was The Face, but even if it was still published I probably wouldn't buy an iPad app and it would appear that most magazine readers have a similar opinion about other existing titles.

For all the furore about the iPad being the saviour of magazines and the future for paid journalism, the market is pitifully small in the UK.* (*see footnote) and there are plenty of reasons why this is unlikely to change for years.

Read more

Zinio and Marie Claire work together on apps

An interesting look at how marie Claire is producing app-friendly content

New magazine is an ongoing Project

Sir Richard Branson said the company plans to rely on "word of mouth from bloggers" to market his new iPad magazine, Project, which debuted this week. "If they don't like it, we're dead in the water," he said, adding: "We don't have Rupert Murdoch's advertising budget, that's for sure."

Well I've had a look (an early one anyway) and taken the plunge to pay £1.79 for a trial copy. It takes time to load - over 3 hours on a 10mB line - and I think a bit gimmicky.

I'll read it this weekend.

Hulu for magazines coming - but not for iPad

Next Issue Media, the "Hulu for Magazines" joint venture, plans to have its digital storefront open early next year. But you won't be able to shop there if you've got an iPad.

Read the whole story: AllThingsD

I love my IPad

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm finding the iPad very compelling to read books(and magazines) on.

Top tip though is to download the Kindle app - books are cheaper.

Also, check out the new T3 preview - looks pretty slick

Outlook not positive for this edition

Just come across "Australian and New Zealand Outlook", which is somewhat amusingly touted as a cutting edge publication for the internet age.

Few problems with this -

(i) The design ; looks like its been put together by a five year old

(ii) Pagesuite - why use this as a platform ? I find it clunky, slow to load and very unfriendly in certain browsers.

(iii) News - how can you do an up to date monthly ? Its an oxymoron given things like paper.li, Flipbook etc

Really must do better - this is just print publishing on a different platform

Can Amazon turn E Books mainstream ?

Interesting piece on how the launch of a cheaper Kindle could introduce a new audience to the ebook format ?

Study says people read e-books slower than print

The debate over e-reading versus traditional printed material continues to rage on. Many folks seem to be of the view that reading on a screen just isn’t the same experience as relaxing with a book.

Yet change always comes eventually, and others ask whether the success of the iPad might help cement the status of the e-book market. Sony certainly thinks that the printed word is on the way out, and in five years time, e-books will be more prevalent.

Read more