Wired for iPad could challenge print subs

Wired today set a possible benchmark for e-reading after its New York Bureau Chief John Abell revealed that over 24,000 copies of the iPad magazine were sold in just the first 24 hours. The number is a rarity for digital magazines and would have made the Conde Nast magazine $83,832 in one day after Apple collected its royalties. The figure comes even with a large half-gigabyte download and a relatively high $5 price.

The bureau lead wasn't worried that the iPad edition would eat into paper magazine sales, as it counts as part of the company's regular circulation. "Even if there is cannibalization it still all goes to [the] bottom line," he said. He also teased that readers "ain't seen nothing yet" in terms of the app's impact.

While it remains too soon to gauge the long-term effect, the app is likely to be the most successful tablet-formatted publication to date and may compete with simpler e-reader versions as well. The Wall Street Journal has had modest success with its iPad delivery, but few are known to have had sales approaching the print level. On the Amazon Kindle, many periodicals either don't publish at all or are forced to strip out color and much of the formatting to be readable.

Wired's design is successful even as the company and Adobe had to redesign the app to avoid Apple's restrictions on cross-compiled apps. In its new form, InDesign CS5 is used to produce the layout, but the code itself is fully native to Apple's platform.

By Electronista Staff

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