The Wall Street Journal
The New Yorker is launching an iPad version of the magazine Monday, in a significant test of an iconic, old-media brand's efforts to refashion itself for the tablet-computer age.
The launch highlights the mounting pressure on Apple Inc. to give publishers a way to sell their magazines more than one digital issue at a time. Executives from the New Yorker and its publisher, Condé Nast, say the true value of apps like the New Yorker's can't be realized until readers are allowed to purchase subscriptions.
Apple has accelerated its efforts to persuade publishers to join the company's first foray into selling newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad tablet computer. Shira Ovide joins the Digits show to discuss.
"It is important to the New Yorker that we have offerings that allow long-term relationships with the consumers," said Condé Nast President Bob Sauerberg. "Obviously, we don't have that in place for the moment with Apple. We are very keen to do that."
The New Yorker's iPad application, at $4.99 an issue, comes with many of the bells and whistles now familiar to readers of periodicals on the device: an animated cover, slideshows and bonus content including extra cartoons and a video guide to reading the issue featuring actor and avid New Yorker reader Jason Schwartzman.
New Yorker editor David Remnick has said he wants to give readers the option of paying for a premium subscription that includes access to the magazine in print, online and on devices like the iPad. However, Apple could be months away from introducing an iPad subscription offering, and publishers remain uncertain about the terms that will govern sales.
Getting beyond single-copy sales is critical for weekly publications like the New Yorker as publishers fear readers will be unwilling to download a new issue every week—and pay up each time. Time Inc. recently tried to launch an app for Sports Illustrated with its own subscription offering, but Apple forced the publisher to withdraw its application.
A key sticking point is Apple's apparent reluctance to give publishers full access to names and other personal information about people who purchase their apps. Publishers value that information because it helps them sell advertising and sign up new readers.
Hearst Corp.'s Esquire magazine is expected to launch on the iPad this week, and while Esquire won't offer subscriptions initially, Hearst executives say "there's progress being made" in talks with Apple.
For now, publications like the New Yorker are hoping readers find enough in the app to keep them coming back. The cover of the issue animates so that users get a brush-by-brush recreation of a still-life by artist David Hockney, who painted it using the Brushes app on the iPad. Users can click on any cartoon to launch a slideshow of every cartoon in the issue, plus five bonus ones that don't appear in print. The app was developed with Adobe Systems Inc.
Unlike more visual magazines, whose greater focus on images and graphics lend themselves better to new devices, the New Yorker is fundamentally about the writing, and editors say they were careful not to stray off course. Editors recently sent employees home with iPads and asked them to use it at all times of the day and report back on which layouts and type-sizes were most conducive to reading a 10,000-word story.
"This magazine is about reading," Mr. Remnick said.
The challenges of marrying technology with a magazine so singularly focused on journalism in its simplest form crystallized early in the development process. At one meeting, writer Roger Angell, who has been a contributor since 1944, expressed concern that if he were to craft a description of how a screwball is thrown by a baseball pitcher he didn't want readers to be able to press a button mid-article and watch a video.
However, writer Evan Osnos embraced the idea of adding to his article about China's Tibet policy a link to a Chinese propaganda film from the 1960s.
As with other Condé Nast publications, all print advertisers also appear on the iPad, but a select group could pay more for "premium" ads that include slideshows, video and other graphics. HSBC, Intel, American Express, Visa and Mexico's tourism board bought premium ads in the New Yorker's first iPad edition.
The launch highlights the mounting pressure on Apple Inc. to give publishers a way to sell their magazines more than one digital issue at a time. Executives from the New Yorker and its publisher, Condé Nast, say the true value of apps like the New Yorker's can't be realized until readers are allowed to purchase subscriptions.
Apple has accelerated its efforts to persuade publishers to join the company's first foray into selling newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad tablet computer. Shira Ovide joins the Digits show to discuss.
"It is important to the New Yorker that we have offerings that allow long-term relationships with the consumers," said Condé Nast President Bob Sauerberg. "Obviously, we don't have that in place for the moment with Apple. We are very keen to do that."
The New Yorker's iPad application, at $4.99 an issue, comes with many of the bells and whistles now familiar to readers of periodicals on the device: an animated cover, slideshows and bonus content including extra cartoons and a video guide to reading the issue featuring actor and avid New Yorker reader Jason Schwartzman.
New Yorker editor David Remnick has said he wants to give readers the option of paying for a premium subscription that includes access to the magazine in print, online and on devices like the iPad. However, Apple could be months away from introducing an iPad subscription offering, and publishers remain uncertain about the terms that will govern sales.
Getting beyond single-copy sales is critical for weekly publications like the New Yorker as publishers fear readers will be unwilling to download a new issue every week—and pay up each time. Time Inc. recently tried to launch an app for Sports Illustrated with its own subscription offering, but Apple forced the publisher to withdraw its application.
A key sticking point is Apple's apparent reluctance to give publishers full access to names and other personal information about people who purchase their apps. Publishers value that information because it helps them sell advertising and sign up new readers.
Hearst Corp.'s Esquire magazine is expected to launch on the iPad this week, and while Esquire won't offer subscriptions initially, Hearst executives say "there's progress being made" in talks with Apple.
For now, publications like the New Yorker are hoping readers find enough in the app to keep them coming back. The cover of the issue animates so that users get a brush-by-brush recreation of a still-life by artist David Hockney, who painted it using the Brushes app on the iPad. Users can click on any cartoon to launch a slideshow of every cartoon in the issue, plus five bonus ones that don't appear in print. The app was developed with Adobe Systems Inc.
Unlike more visual magazines, whose greater focus on images and graphics lend themselves better to new devices, the New Yorker is fundamentally about the writing, and editors say they were careful not to stray off course. Editors recently sent employees home with iPads and asked them to use it at all times of the day and report back on which layouts and type-sizes were most conducive to reading a 10,000-word story.
"This magazine is about reading," Mr. Remnick said.
The challenges of marrying technology with a magazine so singularly focused on journalism in its simplest form crystallized early in the development process. At one meeting, writer Roger Angell, who has been a contributor since 1944, expressed concern that if he were to craft a description of how a screwball is thrown by a baseball pitcher he didn't want readers to be able to press a button mid-article and watch a video.
However, writer Evan Osnos embraced the idea of adding to his article about China's Tibet policy a link to a Chinese propaganda film from the 1960s.
As with other Condé Nast publications, all print advertisers also appear on the iPad, but a select group could pay more for "premium" ads that include slideshows, video and other graphics. HSBC, Intel, American Express, Visa and Mexico's tourism board bought premium ads in the New Yorker's first iPad edition.
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