Since the January release of Apple's latest must-have creation, the iPad, magazine publishers have been anxious to get a bite of this new e-reader's potential audience and market share.
Among the list of hopeful users, Time Inc. hopes to create SI Tablet, a digital version of Sports Illustrated magazine with multimedia and photo imaging capabilities. The SI Tablet would further entice e-readership with incentives such as access to twice the number of images offered in each print edition, games and videos of swimsuit edition shoots.
At the end of last year, Time Inc.'s parent company, Time Warner, reported an 18.2 percent decline in publishing revenue and a 22 percent decline in ad revenue. With the advancement of e-reader technologies, magazine publishers like Time stand to benefit from a new readership market.
Other media firms working on iPad applications include The New York Times Co., Conde Nast Publications, HarperCollins Publishers and News Corp., and could include titles like GQ, Wired and Vanity Fair.
With the iPad, users would pay for yearly magazine subscriptions — a similar pay program to the season pass method used for subscribing to TV programs.