I love Mac magazines! It feels like Christmas every time one arrives in the mail. I have been a subscriber to iPhone Life since the beginning, and MacWorld and MacLife for well over 10 years. I still have MacAddict cd's dating back to 2003. Remember when all the magazines included cd's with each issue?
Now there are digital editions available for the big three. iPhone Life and MacWorld are distributed through the Zinio app. iPhone Life is included free with a subscription, MacWorld charges $6.99 per issue, and MacLife just released their own free app.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I am partial to iPhone Life. It is the only one of the three I read from cover to cover each month....not to mention I am writing this blog for iPhone Life. That being said, I am also partial because I get a free digital copy. I like having digital versions so when I am in between appointments, I can keep reading where I left off.
iPhone Life and MacWorld offer a very good rendition of the magazine allowing you to move from article to article out of sequence via a scrolling toolbar. You can switch to text if you want a cleaner and less distracting read, and access the index by tapping an icon in the top right corner.
MacLife's app is very nice. For now it is free. It includes great graphics, videos, slideshows and the ability to post to twitter and facebook and even e-mail articles to friends. It is truly an interactive version of the magazine. If they eventually start charging, I may consider only getting the digital copy because of the ability to post and e-mail from within the app.
MacWorld wants to charge me the same amount for a digital copy as a printed one. That's not likely to happen. I'll be sticking to my hard copy.
Although you can get all three on an iPhone or iPod Touch, the best experience is on the iPad.
I am not going to stop my wonderful surprises every month, but digital versions are beginning to make for a very good alternative.... if you aren't addicted to print the way I am.
Print vs Digital
Hi Steve,
I also subscribe to iPhoneLife Magazine via Zinio so that I can get my copies in digital format when they are available for downloading.
I have subscribed to iPhoneLife since it beginnings also before I started to write for the magazine blog and I also get all of my other magazine subscriptions in digital format because I don't like printers ink from newspapers all over my fingers and then I have to wash them before I touch anything else. Also they always seem to get bent or ripped in the mail, plus they weigh a lot when transporting them as in moving or traveling with them as in flying, plus the digital versions don't weight any more than the devices they are on, now how cool is that?
The digital versions are the wave of the future and as soon as the publishers figure out what is a fair price that the public is willing to pay since it's all digital and there is no paper or ink cost and the manpower for creating the newspapers or magazines are now nonexistent in numbers needed to produce the product and the distribution cost of delivery etc., I'm sure they will begin to sell even more and it will become a way of life for all of us.
Thanks for writing about this. It's an important issue, of which everyone should consider doing digital versions, which will help to minimize the carbon footprint we leave on this beautiful planet that we've been given temporary custody of while we are here. We should always leave things in better condition than the way we started.
CYL...Patrick
Digital
Patrick,
Thanks for your comment.
I am still a fan of magazines, but as digital gets more and more interactive, it becomes more compelling to give up my pile of glossy paper that just has to go to be recycled. Quite frankly, keeping them on my iPad also allows me to search for articles much easier than trying to remember which issue the article I am looking for is in.
Print vs Digital
You're right Steve, I forgot the best reason for going digital. You can do a search fo the article and not have to remember which issue you read it in, thank you for bringing that to my attention.
You've just reminded me and the other readers why it's important to share our ideas and experiences with others, especially on the blogs where a lot more people can get information about these issues.
Great article on the subject and keep up the good work you are doing here. Kudos
CYL...Patrick
Thanks guys for your thoughts
Thanks guys for your thoughts and compliments.
Pricing for a digital issue is a challenge and not as obvious as you may think. The reason why print magazines are so inexpensive (full color 100 plus pages), is the cost of printing is subsidized by advertising, and lowered because of large print run due to newsstand distribution. Advertisers will (justifiably) pay more for print than digital, even though links aren't live. There is a power of print, of undivided leisurely reading, that even digital doesn't provide. (Very easy to jump around in digital versions to other magazines or web sites).
It really is a dfferent business model for digtial distribution, and few have really figured out yet how to be profitable with it. Lowering prices of digital issue seems a no brainer to end-user, but he doesn't have all the information.