GQ for the men, Vanity Fair for the women: Magazine issues come to the iPad

So maybe the promo for the GQ app is a bit silly with its suggestions that you swipe, tap, and flip like a man, but the magazine actually looks rather nice on an iPad (according to the reviewers at Gizmodo), and with both mags, behind-the-scenes videos are included with editorial features, like football players messing about during an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot for the World Cup, and Emma Watson getting made up for her photography session.

Both apps (by Condé Nast) work in horizontal and in vertical mode. When you hold the iPad vertically, you get the digital interpretation of the magazine. That means a split screen with images at the top and text at the bottom.

The app “remembers” where someone left off reading, even if the person turns off the iPad and calls up text from that spot, and a navigation bar across the bottom and on the upper left directs the person to specific stories.

Vanity Fair brought in six advertisers to design ads unique to the iPad — these are the only ads that show up in the vertical mode — and charged other advertisers a nominal fee to include links in their ads,.

There are still unresolved questions about the iPad for publishers. Vanity Fair knows the name and address of everyone who subscribes to its magazines, but it cannot get that data from Apple about iTunes buyers. That’s one reason the magazine industry is working on its own 'digital newsstand', so it can control the consumer relationship. For now, the app does not allow people to copy or share articles or portions of articles.

You can purchase individual magazine issues—including back issues—through the app, via iTunes, for the same price as paper copies.

Source: NY Times