Digital magazine for app publishers – New micro magazine launches today

App Publisher magazine (www.app-publisher.net) launches today to provide guidance for those publishing content onto mobile and apps, while simultaneously testing the viability of creating low cost ‘micro magazines’ for Apple Newsstand.

App Publisher is published and edited by Paul Blake, who has written about and participated in the digital publishing business for over 25 years. His motivation for creating the magazine, is to help writers, editors, bloggers, and content professionals get to grips with the opportunities within the app and mobile world, not only to push content out to new audiences, but also to get paid for that content.

The first issue, out 9 January, includes an in-depth interview with content strategist Ann Rockley on creating content for mobile, a profile of Newsstand publishing challenger Magloft, and a review of App Design Vault’s Newsstand Template. It also includes mediaweb’s Eric van Hall on mobile content design, and advice on launching your app, driving engagement and boosting downloads from appsworld London. There is a free one month trial with a subscription, which costs USD $1.99 every two months. Single issues cost USD $3.99 and the magazine is available on both iPad and iPhone.

“In many respects, App Publisher magazine is an experiment,” said Paul Blake. “The premise behind it is simple. Not only to provide practical help, insight and advice on publishing content onto mobile and apps, but also to test the business viability of mobile content. Can you really write about a topic you’re passionate about and create a viable business by publishing that to tablets or smartphones? What technology do you need? How do you price your content? How do you find your audience? I hope the mechanics of publishing App Publisher magazine will provide useful insight and I want to be open and share as much about that as I can.”

“The first issue of App Publisher magazine cost $300 to put together, a third of the cost being $99 for an Apple Developer account,” Paul reveals. “It’s being published to a global audience through Apple Newsstand and readers can download it instantly. Sure, Apple takes its 30 percent cut, but with its low costs of production, there’s a real opportunity to create a viable, self-sustaining magazine.”

Published every other month, App Publisher magazine will feature interviews, reviews, guides, tips and a unique directory of ‘roll your own’ app services that let you publish app content without needing a developer. “When I started researching this area,” said Paul Blake, “I realised that, not only were there no lists of companies with services that could help non-developers publish their content onto mobile cheaply and easily, there was no-one reviewing or comparing them. And all the help and advice on publishing on mobile was aimed at developers.”

The mobile content market is an embryonic one, Paul Blake feels. “It’s full of new, innovative companies trying to break down the barriers of publishing content onto smartphones and tablets. Yet, at the same time, it is chaotic, uncertain, awkward and challenging. Right now anyone attempting to publish content to mobile without a big development budget is still a pioneer, feeling their way through different pieces of immature technology and pricing models.”