Before I get too deep into this post, I must admit, I’m a huge big fan of physical print magazine. My current subscriptions include Inc. and Popular Science. I believe I paid $10 bucks to get both of these publications delivered to my door for an entire year. I must also admit that I have a vested interest in how magazines will work on the iPad which I plan to unveil sometime in the near future. Ok, cool.

It’s been said that the iPad could be the savior of the magazine publishing industry but truthfully I have yet to see a really amazing implementation of a digital magazine that makes me actually want to buy content and interact with the product on a regular basis. A few apps, including Flipboard and Pulse, have made me feel giddy about “consuming” content but after a few days I’ve found myself not opening these apps at all. Not to mention, these apps are not even selling any content whatsoever. I still regularly find myself opening my relatively *ugly* RSS reader and reading content there. It’s just easier on the eyes, for me anyways, to see content laid out in that fashion.

Needless to say, big magazines publishers are currently scrambling to get their content on the iPad. Many have resorted to charging ridiculous prices for “digital editions” of their magazine publications which has turned off many potential customers- myself included. I’m assuming the high cost per issue is really in place to cover the steep cost of production. They gotta pay off them developers some how!

Unfortunately, however, major magazine publishers have very few options at this point.

Hire an entire staff of iPad developers and content creators
The first option magazine publishers have is to hire iPad developers and additional resources to support a new wing of the business. This may require cutting some of your existing staff in order to allocate a budget for your new staff or shifting around some existing roles within the organization. I should also note that this kind of talent search also requires allocating additional resources in the staffing/recruiting department. Great iPad developers are hard to find and even harder to hire full-time so this will definitely be a challenge for magazine publishers.

Wait it out
Soon big magazine companies will either have to create new technology in-house to publish their digital content or wait until this technology has been made available to them. Creating new technology in-house may allow publishers to be first to market however this is a very expensive solution. Developers with the technical know-how to make this happen are very few and very expensive. Publishers who opt to build their own technology for publishing to the iPad or any other digital outlet, will not only need to build the new technology but also have a fully trained team on staff that understands their proprietary software and process.The alternative of course is waiting for the technology to arrive which will making publishing to the iPad easier and faster without having to completely rehaul your company. One of the drawbacks however in waiting for this tech is that it may make a publisher seem late to the game. In the end this is a less expensive option with a potentially higher or equal return on investment.

Dive in NOW!
Like many of the top publishers, getting their content on the iPad as quickly as possible was the solution. Regardless of quality in the end product, the content HAD to be available on the new platform. This is understandable and I think it’s very brave (and risky!) for a lot of this publishers to take the leap first. I also believe we will continue to see publishers take even bigger risks once iPad use becomes more ubiquitous.

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It’ll be really interesting to see how the future of publishing is shaped before our eyes. In a way, publishers are making a huge bet that Apple’s iPad is indeed the best format and device for consuming their content and that’s probably good news to Apple. I have lots more to write about on the subject but I figured this would be a nice introduction to this topic and my thoughts on it.

What do you think about magazines on the iPad?