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

Wired magazine has a "scratch off" cover for its June issue that aims to test the will-power of its readers.

Wired, one of my favourite trends/ technology mags, is challenging its UK readers this month to resist scratching off the ink on the cover as part of a "trust experiment" it is running.

The cover ties in with a piece inside about the "trust economy", which analyses peer-to-peer lending (lending without the involvement of a traditional financial institution) and how it is financing new start-ups and challenging the domination of banks.

There are special "scratch off" varnish panels over cover lines which hide key words. One example is the cover line "World Cup winner revealed: XXXXXXX".

Underneath the varnish there is not a team name but the words "by data". It directs the reader to a feature on how data can help with World Cup predictions.

The editor of Wired, David Rowan, said: "Wired is of course all about new and innovative ideas as a means of engaging with our readers. We offer brain food, elegantly presented, and in a spirit of fun – in doing so, we hope to challenge, enthuse and inspire."

The issue is out this Thursday 6th May.

Supermodels Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lara Stone on eight separate covers for LOVE magazine

Condé Nast has produced eight different covers for the latest issue of its fashion and lifestyle magazine, Love, featuring naked cover stars including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lara Stone.

Each is photographed naked in an identical pose by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot and feature in a 40-page shoot.

The other models who will appear in the magazine, published on Monday next week, are Natalia Vodianova, Amber Valetta, Jeneil Williams, Kristen McMenamy and Daria Werbowy.

Katie Grand, the Love editor, said the magazine had chosen the women who are generally acknowledged to be the most beautiful in the world for the "fashion icons" issue of the bi-annual magazine.

"For this issue of Love, we took eight women who are generally acknowledged as the most beautiful in the world, got them to show off their bodies – widely regarded as the most perfect in the world – and photographed them in exactly the same position for the cover," Grand added.

Alas said: "It was interesting to study them naked, all in the same pose, as they are all so different, but all so powerful-looking."

Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Past 40 Years

Click here for the full list of 40. Any to add?