Conde Nast Brings Titles to iPhone
by Gio Gutierrez
Mega publisher Conde Nast is now taking steps in embracing this digital age of ours with electronic versions of its most popular titles for the iPhone. The first magazine will be GQ this December priced at 2.99 vs the 4.99 cost of the printed edition. Important note is the fact that the iPhone version will include the same editorial ads as the dead-tree version which is important for advertisers along with rich media content at little-to-no-extra cost.
So me being a GQ reader (and other magazines), I would not pay 2.99 for a digital copy and I don’t think I’m alone on this. The iPhone screen is pretty tiny for a reading experience of long duration and not comfortable as opposed to some tablet/ebook. Even a bigger problem for myself is the price is just too much. I think the selling point for me personally would be .99 cents and this is how I feel about any magazine with ads that I’m subjected to read on the iPhone. I could just fire up Safari and see the same content for free on the publisher’s site. Regardless this is exciting news because it’s a sign of things to come. Newspapers and magazines have been suffering long enough and have been too slow adapting to the digital platform as most of us turn to the internet and other electronic services and devices to get our content. How much longer before we see every big print title in every digital format available to consumers?