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Are magazine and newspaper apps doomed?

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Editorials,

Fred Wilson, a known venture capitalist, put up a post this week arguing that magazine and newspaper apps are not a viable strategy for content publishers. It's no secret that the print industry has been in decline, with print companies shutting down. As information moves to the web, some of the core principles they could rely on before, exclusivity and scarcity, are no longer available to them as anyone can easily blog about everything in this link economy. The arrival of the iPad made many magazines and newspapers jump on board, because with apps, there's an illusion that these core principles exist again.

Whereas it soon became clear that most people were not willing to pay to have access to a web site, they thought that it would be easier to get these same people to pay to download an app which has basically the same content, with some 'pretty' layer on top of it. With recent figures showing that sales of those types of apps have been declining recently however, Wilson argues that this is only temporary. Instead, he sees the mobile space heading more towards the web model, where information want to be free, and with billions of devices accessing mostly free content.

Read More | AVC

Gallery: Are magazine and newspaper apps doomed?


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Virgin’s Project Magazine

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: News, iPad Apps, $2.99, Free Apps,

Richard Branson and Virgin have released Project, which is now available in the App Store for iPad devices running the latest version of iOS. Managing to beat News Corp and their upcoming periodical The Daily, Virgin promotes their magazine as "a revolutionary multimedia magazine built specially for your iPad – packed with international culture, entertainment, design, business and travel." While the app itself is free, each magazine will cost you $2.99, and comes out once a month.

The magazine itself looks similar to other magazines available for the iPad, with multiple navigation options that take advantage of the device, although it includes more multimedia components. Each section starts with a video presentation, there's interactive images, sounds, and other little extras. Note that the magazine also has ads in it. Techcrunch made a video overview for it which shows it off pretty well. The app does come with a preview by itself, so check it out in the App Store.

Read More | Project Magazine

Gallery: Virgin’s Project Magazine


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