You have to be kidding me. Are we really going to go through this again? The first versions of newspapers and magazines on the Web were, essentially, newspapers and magazines ported to the web, style and all. Now we have a chance to learn from the past and create something really wonderful for the iPad and other tablet devices to come. Like many of you, I got seriously excited when I saw this proof of concept for what a Sports Illustrated app could look like. And there’s this wild demo from VIVmag that uses a house as a navigation metaphor. Sadly, what we’re seeing falls far short of the future of news – it’s Back to the Past.
WIRED came out with the iPad-friendly version of its magazine this week. It’s already the #1 selling app (it doesn’t feel right to call a magazine an app, does it?). WIRED has been a long, long, longtime favorite here at One LR Plaza. What does this forward-thinking company do with its opportunity to change magazines? It shoves a copy of its magazine into web format. Yeah, there are a few tweaks. If you click on the cover, you can see video of Toy Story. Video and a few interactive graphics are smattered throughout. But, in the final judgement, this is just a magazine turned into an app.
And then there are the ads. Holy moley. If I’m spending $5 on an app, it had better be ad free. Otherwise, you’re just shoving the old model on me again. How about a free, ad-supported version or a $5 ad-free version?
Granted, this is the first edition of WIRED. I have to assume they will keep tweaking the offering and make it more iPad-native. But still — is that even what we want? Writes Business Insider:
“There seems to be a mentality in the magazine world that people want to read magazines the same as they always have, but with a few more bells and whistles. And that’s all this Wired app is. It’s the exact same thing you’ve always received, just gussied up. Just like you would get a magazine in the mail, sit down and dedicate yourself to that magazine alone, Wired, and others think you want the same in digital format.That’s not what we want. When we want to read, we like to read good stories. We don’t really care which magazine originated the story.”
Bingo. Our “magazines” are going to be customized, featuring our choices of interesting content, articles recommended socially, and web pages and blogs. Simply taking your existing magazine and sticking in some video does not make it a more attractive offering; it makes it a website from 2003.
