Katie MarsalThe first iPad edition of Wired debuted in May and sold more than 100,000 copies in the next month. But according to high-end fashion magazine Women's Wear Daily, sales of the magazine's more recent iPad editions were significantly lower,with sales of 22,000 and 23,000 in October and November, respectively.
For Wired, the iPad sales are much less than the print editions in October and November, which amounted to 130,000. And iPad purchases have been made without the aid of automated subscriptions for publications on the App Store.
Sales figures for other magazines also saw downward trends after their respective debuts, as sales of Vanity Fair were at 8,700 in November, down from an average of 10,500 in August, September and October. Glamour also dropped 20 percent in October and another 20 percent in November, hitting 2,775 in the last month.
The figures also showed GQ's November edition with its lowest performance since April, when the iPad debuted. And Men's Health sold about 2,000 in September in October, down from its average sales of 2,800 in the spring. All of the figures were made available to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
"Publishers are hopeful their December and January numbers will bump back up after more consumers get their hands on digital devices during the holidays," author John Koblin wrote. "Call it an early New Year's wish."
In November, Women's Wear Daily was among the first to report that News Corporation is working on a new tablet-only daily newspaper, dubbed the Daily, which will first be introduced on the iPad. Rumors have pegged a Jan. 17 launch for the publication, potentially alongside the introduction of recurring application subscriptions on the App Store.
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69 Comments
The magazines are too expensive and the publishers are too greedy.
They want it all... but they will lose it all.
They need to offer yearly subscriptions are reasonable prices. I bet Apple's cut is much less than the cost of printing, shipping, distributing and selling the paper versions. Not to mention archiving or trashing the paper after reading them.
Time will tell.
There is something very elegant about printing on high quality stock that gets lost on the digital version. I know I really enjoy the printed version more, plus, I get to pass it on when I'm finished with it.
I love the smell of ink in the morning!
They need to reduce the price.
I subscribed to Sporting News and found that daily was a lot to read.
Apple has created an ecosystem that is extremely unfriendly to 'new' and 'revolutionary' ideas where the iPad and publications are concerned.
People don't want old publications in digital form. They want new and fresh ideas. Like when the world wide web came out and people started creating websites. It was a new renaissance in publishing.
Apple is completely missing the boat on this.
If Apple created software (Pages?) that would allow anyone to created iPad publications - and a store that allowed independent publications to shine (like the app store), then you would see a resurgence in desktop publishing.
1) there would be lots of bad publications - but a lot of new and innovative ideas as well that would rise to the top - let people decide what they want to read.
2) there would be increased interest in iPad publications as people would want to explore (like they do apps)
Let publishing companies pick their own advertisers. Trying to control all the content on a digital device is both futile and a completely ridiculous business plan.
Treat the publishing industry like they do the app industry - and you will see similar success.
Give publishers their own SDK and a vehicle to market it.
1-- Offer attractive subscription rates.
2-- Make your "digital magazine" something other than huge image files.
3-- Or just give up and let aggregators like Flip Book make your entire industry obsolete.