Conde Nast Slowing Plans for iPad Magazines Amid Weak Sales

125314 conde nast titles

Ad Age reports that Conde Nast, one of the early iPad supporters in the magazine industry, is slowing down its plans to bring more titles to the platform, citing slow sales of its existing titles.

"It's a shift," one Conde publisher said. "The official stance was we're going to get all our magazines on the iPad because this is going to be such an important stream. The new change is maybe we can slow it down. In my opinion it makes Conde look smart because we have the ambition, but we're not rushing."

"They're not all doing all that well, so why rush to get them all on there?" the publisher added.

According to the report, development of iPad applications is now up to the individual publishers for each magazine, shifting away from a concerted effort by the conglomerate to push forward on all titles.

Conde Nast is said to be increasing its focus on sales of existing titles and generating unique iPad applications that don't mimic the print editions and instead offer "exclusive" content. Ad buyers are also reportedly still looking to see the distribution scale and metrics that will drive that market forward to sustain the digital magazine model, a position that is no doubt influencing Conde Nast's strategy to focus on scaling existing titles.

Related Roundup: iPad
Buyer's Guide: iPad (Caution)
Related Forum: iPad

Popular Stories

cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iPhone Fold Vertical Feature

Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices. According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
trump iphone dictation issue

Apple Fixing 'Trump' Dictation Processing Bug

Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist." In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
airtag orange

AirTag 2 Rumored to Launch in May or June With These New Features

Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe. Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2: With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
ios 18 4 carplay

iOS 18.4 Includes a Small But Useful Change for CarPlay

Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay. As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...

Top Rated Comments

fmaxwell Avatar
181 months ago
I don't want an app for every magazine I read!

I have Zinio and subscribe to multiple magazines on it. It works fine. I don't want a separate app for every magazine that I read. I don't want different controls, different features, different layout, etc. I don't want every magazine "enhanced" with video features in some brave new experiment that I'm funding. I want a PDF of the magazine delivered to me to read. That's what Zinio does (it's an encrypted equivalent to PDF). I want to go to one "virtual" bookshelf and pick the magazine I want to read. That's it.

Conde Nast is having to "slow down" because they've created a damned expensive delivery system instead of using a preexisting thing like Zinio, iBooks, B&N Reader, Kindle, etc. Imagine if every ebook series had its own app!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
seamer Avatar
181 months ago
The prices for e-equivalents of established magazines is just unfeasible. Even with Apple taking 30% of the cut, it would still be profitable to just lower the sale price. E-sales mean less resources (ie paper, ink), lower transport costs, and less % to the store who sold the physical magazine. Keeping the magazines at print prices is pure gouging, and the slow sales reflect that.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bmat Avatar
181 months ago
I'd get the New Yorker in a minute if it was even remotely priced the way it would be for a print subscription. I'd pay even more--due to the convenience factor, but not $5 an issue.

The demand is not there because their prices are unrealistic.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BobVB Avatar
181 months ago
Guess I'm Old School…

I don't want a 'magic' magazine, I just want the magazine on my iPad and so I'm happy with Zinio. They want to sell zillions of copies they need to get their subscription rate down to the level of the mail subscriptions and make it easy to get them. Cute movies, animations and the like? Put a link to the web.

Magazine publishers: If you wasting any more resources than just making it an intelligent PDF file you are wasting your time and forcing the price up to the point no one wants your product. Learn from Steve - when doing something new make it build on what came before - people aren't going to get something new and unfamiliar in style or price, especially a much higher price.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JAYnLA Avatar
181 months ago
Price Price Price

I'm not a thrifty person by nature, so it says plenty that I refuse to pay the prices they're asking for these mags on the iPad. It really is that simple. Make them $1.99 and sales will go through the roof.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spazzcat Avatar
181 months ago
The price needs to be $.99 to $1.99 for each issue. I can get Men's Health in mailed to my house for $14.99 for 10 issues. Why does each iPad issue cost so much!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)