Are Canadian publishers slow to embrace iPad?
Canadian magazine publishers are being more tentative than their U.S. counterparts in rushing to adapt their titles to the recently announced iPad; at least according to a story in the Montreal Gazette. The article points to initiatives by Time Inc. and Conde Nast in developing iPad versions of such titles as Wired, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, while no Canadian publishers have made similar announcements.
Laurie Alpern, communications director of Magazines Canada said she didn’t know of any magazines working on new electronic versions of their titles.
However, she said the non-profit association has gotten good sales from its newly created Digital Newsstand where electronic versions of 98 Canadian magazines are available. The site, MagazinesCanada.Zinio.com, has electronic flip versions of magazines, which can be viewed on a computer for now. Some of the magazines also incorporate video, Alpern said.
Only The Hockey News [Transcontinental] and Maclean’s [Rogers] can be seen on an iPhone. But the rest of the titles on Digital Newsstand will also become iPhone friendly in the coming months, Alpern said. Any iPhone application will also work for the iPad, according to Apple’s web site.
The magazine association hopes to get all 320 member magazines up on Digital Newsstand in the coming months.
Labels: web and print
posted by D. B. Scott at
6:44 pm
7 Comments:
For so many, many reasons, they deserve what's coming...
I guarantee we're all interested. But none of us has the budget to gamble on a new project like this. Better, in my opinion, to gauge what works for the US publishers and react accordingly.
I'd be interested in taking a look at the ipad SDK and chat with people who are looking into it at the upcoming booknet tech forum. Does anyone think that we'll see any test projects at the tech forum?
I agree with Kat. While no one wants to be left behind — and the big publishers are talking about it — it's still too early to tell how the iPad will received. While I'm sure some publishers will do some great things on it, I'm not convinced that it'll bring back print's glory days as so many people suggest.
It won't have the same impact on the magazine world as the iPod did with music, that's for sure. (So many reasons why the iPod revolutionized the way we listen to music, many of those reasons don't transfer to the print world.)
I want publishers to be thinking hard about it, but to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into this without the payoff would not be good. The iPad, and tech like it, will have its day, but we're still years away before the printing plants stop the presses.
Canadian publishers are a complete joke. I can't wait until the tech shift buries these dinosaurs.
Yes, bury the dinosaurs! It's so mad- hard to write FAIL or DO NOT WANT in crayon across something you don't like in print. Try and add something to the discussion, champ.
@Anonymous (posted at 2:02 PM)
What you've encountered is a Canadian freelancer in the wild.
Likely, s/he has toiled in the industry for many years, given his or her all in pursuit of a story, done extra work for no extra pay and is now facing a steadily declining standard of living and pressure from a "publisher" (in reality, a former printing company executive) to effectively give up ownership of their own work -- and along with it, the last hope s/he has of maybe extracting some small advantage from the changes that are being forced upon an industry that has consistently taken advantage of the people who allow it to survive.
Frustration levels are unbelievably high, pay levels have basically stagnated for thirty years, and publishers don't give a damn about trying to address the concerns of their writers. In fact, they're actively working to screw them.
What do you suggest we discuss, champ? The weather?
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