According to Advertising Age, Maxim is joining GQ and Esquire by making its issues available as an app for your iPod Touch or iPhone. The GQ and Esquire app each cost $2.99 per copy. With that price, and the convenience of not having to stuff one more item in my bag, I’m definitely interested. Imagine videos, slideshows and more embedded within your articles, exactly where you want it.
But, put a longer article on there and (for me) the appeal is gone; there’s only so much time that can be spent reading on those screens before my eyes burn out. Still, I’d like to read a magazine on there at least once. With a screen so small, I don’t know how appealing the layout design can be, but, perhaps, that doesn’t matter to everyone else. If having these apps makes a magazine more accessible, and more read, then maybe more mags should put some or all of its content in an app form. Now if only I had an iPod Touch to try it out myself.
About the author
Seema Persaud was the Managing Editor for the Summer 2010 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.