After Wired’s enormous first month in June, when it sold 100,000 copies — an even better result than the usual 76,000 it sells off the newsstand — sales have been about a quarter of that. In July and August, the Wired iPad app sold 31,000 and 28,000 copies, respectively, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report. A Wired spokeswoman confirmed the magazine has sold an average of roughly 30,000 copies since the June release.
via WWD.com.
5 Comments
I bought the first iPad issue. It was cool, enjoyable to experience, but then for whatever reason when they updated the Wired app, previous downloads had to be redownloaded. What a pain at 500mb even over a good connection. Waste of my time and storage on a 16gb iPad.
I can also buy a year subscription of the wood pult kind for under $10 through Amazon deals, so why would I bother with $3.99 an iPad issue.
Growing pains is the iPad publishing industry. It’s slick, new, carry with you anywhere but just because I paid the iPad sticker price doesn’t mean I want to pay a premium for content. Look at Netflix, DVDs are old tech, I can stream movies and tv to the iPad all for $9 a month. That’s amazing. Great for my daughter and occasionally when I watch documentaries and such which I say is a business need :) since I am doing motion projects now.
The problem I experience is content and available time. Just because I can get all this great content on the iPad doesn’t mean I magically have more time to consume it. With work, I have less than I feel I did years past.
I have to echo JS to a small degree. The amount of time I have to read content is limited. The other fact is I would rather have the wood pulp versions these days.
I thought I would like the digital format better but it turns out that if I have a few moments to read a couple of pages, the electronic verision doesn’t give you the ability to dog ear where you left off, at least that I know of and to get to the page you want in a couple of moments isn’t going to happen either.
JS summed it up right:
“I can also buy a year subscription of the wood pult kind for under $10 through Amazon deals, so why would I bother with $3.99 an iPad issue.”
Though I did buy the two following issues on the iPad ‘cos, well… it was an entertaining way to read the magazine. But I won’t continue if no subscription becomes available.
The point is that Wired have created a market and have done something new.
Like any good healthy business, someone inside Wired agrees with you all and it will evolve.
They know how big the pots is, what people like, what do not and how to make it better for their audience.
They can scale up, scale down and try more things.
I am not a fan of iPad magazines as I like looking at old fashioned print but great going to you all at Wired and if 30,000 per month is the outcome, then I am sure you can make it work.
If the iPad takes off and their product evolves… they are well positioned to be part of the future!
@Ed Hamlin,
I use a Kindle3.
I can read the paper in bed, without getting up to retrieve it.
I can leave it alone, it, it turns itself off while saving my place and I can carry several days worth of the WashPost and the NYT plus the latest book I’m reading without getting my hands either dirty or full.
I like print media on wood pulp and miss some things about it but the absolute convenience of the Kindle just overwhelms the missed positives for these occasions.
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