The iPad was unveiled in January as a unique media consumption device. It is the first of its kind to combine a colorful screen with a long-lasting battery and a multi-touch interface. It isn't just good for reading books, looking at photos, and checking email. It is opening doors for the magazine industry and offering up a new way to present content. In the past, users were limited to making the difficult choice between print and online media. The iPad seamlessly combines the two and allows for something utterly different to emerge. We have only seen the beginning of it.

Magazines have fallen on hard times. Sales at the stand are down and free online content continues to dominate. Things really took a turn for the worse at the beginning of the recent recession, and the trend appears as though it is only going to continue unless magazine publishers can find a way to bring back their core readership.

The iPad might just be the key to bringing some of those readers back. Several magazines are working on some highly innovative designs that mix video, sound, and other multimedia to produce an enriching reading experience. Vivify is a great example of these efforts. Their magazine opens with an artful sequence that shows off what can be done on the device. Every article is animated and truly alive. The results are almost unbelievable.

Image Courtesy: Engadget

Other magazines have also done a great job of transitioning to the iPad. Time and Wired are among a few of them. They are excited to see what the interactivity of the iPad can do to their stories. Text on a page no longer has to be just text, which is something that even traditional PCs and laptops limit us to. A touchscreen interface, on the other hand, offers something that makes written content more real and in your face. You can actually touch it, and it responds.

The question still remains. Will the shift from print media to the iPad, and similar devices, be enough to save the magazine industry? Let's clear up one illusion right now. Magazines, whether they are in print form or on the iPad, are going to have the same news stand price. In fact, the news stand price was never a great revenue generator for magazines. Most of their money comes from well placed advertisements. The price is there to convince the reader of the magazine's legitimacy.

No matter what form magazines are in, it all comes down to attracting readers. If magazines can't find a way to do this, they lose advertisers and eventually fail. The new changes in the way magazines are presented have been getting great press as of late. So long as they can continue to build upon this enthusiasm, they may gain more readers after the release of the iPad.

Image Courtesy: PCWorld

It is clear that the nature of the media is changing, and it is changing fast. Nobody is quite sure who will make money in the years to come. While magazines like Vivify are on the cutting edge of media presentation, their ability to do so doesn't come cheap. It takes much more work to create an interactive piece for the iPad than it does to whip up a popular blog post. Having said that, it is worth the quality. The new magazines will be unlike any form of media that existed prior to them. If there is a market for high quality digital magazines like this, we hope it isn't limited.

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