Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour could be the first magazines to offer an iPad version of print publications, according to a new report. The apps will be released by publisher Conde Nast as a test to end in the fall.
In April, GQ will unveil an iPad app to accompany the existing iPhone application. In June, iPad versions of Wired and Vanity Fair should appear. The New Yorker and Glamour should introduce iPad editions sometime this summer, according to the New York Times.
The testing phase will enable Conde Naste to experiment with pricing, advertising and methods for digitizing the print versions. During this phase, the publisher will sell the iPad version through iTunes, a move that could limit Conde Nast’s access to marketing data accumulated from the sales.
Wired says it is ready for the iPad. Chris Anderson, the magazine’s chief editor, calls Apple‘s new tablet a “game changer.”
For GQ, the test could also help the publisher learn whether the iPad is a better platform than the iPhone as an adjunct to its print version. The magazine’s “Men of the Year” December issue for the iPhone sold 7,000 times versus 240,000 newsstand and 667,851 subscriber copies.
[via Silicon Alley Insider and New York Times]