Condé Nast reveals initial list of iPad magazines

Take a look at what this digital agency in NYC is working on for the advertising that will exist in these magazines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSLDjT-5Kk0

While apple doesn't provide reader statistics, can't the apps and servers use the uuid to keep track of and profile individual users anonymously?

By cross referencing with known stats, the could probably lump the reader into age, gender, and income brackets, yes?

A word about subscription fees: I hear you about having a lower cost for digital subscriptions based on lower material overhead, but the reality is that magazine subscription fees don't even remotely cover the cost of the production of a magazine. That tab is primarily picked up by advertisers.

The subscription fee is a barrier of entry, to make sure you are really interested in it. They don't want to send you their expensive-to-produce mag unless you are definitely going to look at it, and see the ads. Sure, they make a tidy sum off these fees, but it only offsets the actual cost of production a little bit.

All these media companies are not in the business of selling content to you; they are in the business of selling your eyeballs to advertisers. Now, you could suggest that because the cost of production is going waaay down with digital, there is no risk to letting anybody have access to the content. More eyeballs, right? Probably. There might be issues of perceived quality (this mag is free, but this one charges so maybe it's better), and advertisers are more interested in doing business with a magazine that can prove it's readership spends money. Though the fact that they have an iPad ought to be enough...

Wired ? cool. New Yorker ? Hmmm...OK. But give me Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, & a weekly news magazine like Newsweek or Time, plus my favorite Mac 'zines (MacLife), and I'd be really happy.

And yes, I agree with dicesquirrel above: don't just re-package paper magazines in to digital form. Incl. some extras like easy access to subscriber-only material on their website or something.

Oh, and make it a bit cheaper. No paper to print and mail should translate in to lower costs.

I don't care how Condé Nast creates the electronic Wired mag, as long as it doesn't suck. I actually would pay the $8 - $10 for a digital subscription, because a digital format would be a lot more accessible to me right now. I have a backlog of Wired, which I do love, but I can't get to because I'm too busy to sit down a read a magazine lately. A digital version that I could have with me all the time, and pick at here and there--that's worth something to me.

If, as I say, it doesn't suck. I would hope the first one is free to try it out. InDesign to AIr to "Packager for iPhone" sounds like a lot of reimplementation of a reimplementation.

I wonder if this means other countries as well?

These companies are deluded if they think the public is going to pay top dollar for a la carte digital content. If I can get a 1 year subscription to the print version of Wired for $10 or less, paying the same amount for digital is questionable enough - paying more is ridiculous. If you eliminate the printing and distribution cost, the public expects a corresponding reduction of sale price.

Also, leaving it up to publishers (who are generally clueless about technology) to design and create magazine apps doesn't sound like a great idea. It would be far better if Apple designed a really good UI that the publishers could then load their content on, and then allow users to access these in the same way they will access iBooks content.

What I don't understand is why they don't release an umbrella Condé Nast application that contains ALL their properties, with a heftier monthly subscription of maybe $15-20/month. That way, people are more likely to look at magazines they normally might not pick up. Condé Nast benefits from increased viewership, therefor increased CPM for their ad department. If folks balk at the fee, then offer individual magazine subscriptions for less, but for heaven's sake, they need to stop treating NEW MEDIA like OLD MEDIA. Everything we've seen says people want MORE options (see: Hulu), not the same old product shoehorned into a digital container.

Whet do mean "will be available" as a subscription? Or paid app?