Nick Ehle

The iPad has been promoted as a great opportunity for content publishers to begin charging a premium for digital content that is free on the web. The efforts to date have not been impressive, and properties like Newsweek and Wired are essentially taking the print version of their magazine and porting them over to the iPad as an image. Like Fred Wilson, because of these shortcomings I find the Safari browser to be my favorite content browsing app on my iPad, and I’ve configured my iPad so that it is a fully interactive experience in the browser, whether I am automatically bookmarking on delicious or posting to Twitter or Facebook.

The current crop of magazines are missing these essential features and functionality. If I wanted to see a static content page, I would just buy the print magazine at a much cheaper rate than what I need to pay to get the same content on my iPad. I know that the iPad version of Wired’s June edition has outsold newstand sales, but this faddish short term result will not become a lasting success if further innovation is not brought to these digital properties.

I give credit to the magazine publishers for moving quickly to capitalize on this opportunity, but there are still gaping holes that need to be filled:

• Why can’t I get a reduced monthly price through a digital subscription?
• Where’s the interactive advertising to entertain me and help subsidize the price of the content?
• When will I be able to share and promote my favorite stories from these iPad apps to my social network?

I’m sure that the publishers are working hard to fix these and other challenges, and I’m crossing my fingers that the fully realized product will be delivered before the public loses interest in the “magazine” format on our tablet devices.