iPad No Savior for Magazine Publishers

For Magazines, a Bitter Pill in iPad.  (New York Times, 1/17/2011)

Excerpt: Since Apple introduced the iPad last year, publishers have poured millions of dollars into apps in the hopes that the device could revolutionize the industry by changing the way magazines are read and sold to consumers.

But at the same time, the industry is discovering a lesson already learned by music labels and Hollywood studios: Apple may offer new opportunities with its devices, but it exacts a heavy toll. Magazine publishers argue in particular that limiting magazine sales on the iPad to single issues (except in a handful of cases) has hamstrung publishers from fully capitalizing on a new and lucrative business model.

[snip]

Magazine publishers — who are still stinging from the economic collapse of 2008 — want more than anything to settle on a business model that works on their terms. And what the tablet market finally provides is a viable digital business, something that eluded them with the rise of the Internet.

Tablets, they believe, offer magazines a do-over in digital form. The picture quality can be far better on a tablet than on a computer screen; the ability to create multimedia, interactive storytelling is greater; and there are more opportunities for advertisers to innovate.

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iPads in the classroom.  (12/15/2010)
"Purpose-built" vs. multipurpose machines.  (8/8/2010)
iPad introduced to an already overburdened digital world.  (1/28/2010)
Tablet computers: an over-the-shoulder look.  (1/27/2010)
Apple Tablet makes it easier to buy Don Draper's hat.  (1/27/2010)
And in particular.....
Print media hopes Apple Tablet comes with eraser.  (1/26/2010)