Magazines Not Going Down Without a Fight

While it may be true that the print magazine industry is dwindling down, the news is not dead. According to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/media/16adco.html?_r=1&ref=business, the magazine industry has been very busy in getting themselves involved with electronic readers, tablet computers, which are quickly becoming popular in schools, and iPhone applications. While it’s true that not every magazine company is making this stride towards electronic success, there are specifically two magazines, Esquire and GQ that have created iPhone versions of their magazine through an application. Because the iPhone is a popular form of new media and it is continuously growing and changing with technology, the magazines’ creation of this partnership with applications are going to serve to be very profitable in the near future.
At first, these applications were free to download, the overall layout of the magazine was nothing special, and the product wasn’t something that people would want to pay a monthly subscription for. However, as technology has expanded, these seemingly boring old applications were recreated, and they’re better than ever. Actually, they’re so good that Esquire has decided to charge a $2.99 fee. And, although it may seem like very inexpensive, publishers reminisce to days when magazines were less than a dollar and were very popular in circulation. Seems like they’re hoping to reignite a similar fire in today’s electronically obsessed world.

There are two factors in contributing to how successful this launch of this new application trend, one being the hope that tablet computers continue to gain popularity and the other being that readers are still interested on reading magazine material on these new computers. Personally, I feel like the tablet computer is on a rise, especially with college students that are interested in actively pursuing magazine content, both news and entertainment. However, the one drawback with this is that college students are generally very poor and won’t want to pay $2.99 for something they can read at a local Rite Aid with no charge. This is where the potential success of the iPhone applications come in, because, generally speaking, owners of iPhones would probably be more likely to be willing to purchase a magazine for $2.99 because they spent $400 on the phone and $30 a month for additional internet fees. But, of course, this is only an assumption because I am a college student who owns an iPhone, and I certainly would never pay $2.99 for an online magazine at this time in my life.

So, while some may think that magazines are dead, this really isn’t true. They’re struggling, but constantly searching for new ways to improve their readership.