Steve Jobs' Ghost: Hi-Res iPad Will Undermine the Magazine Model

One of the design decisions that Steve Jobs made about iTunes—and for better or worse, one that has been responsible for its tremendous success—was to make the primary unit of sale the song as opposed to the album. Jobs was a classic rock, album-oriented guy as much as any boomer, but he saw what was going on in the world of illicit file sharing and realized that the kids were trading in songs already. But when it comes to the world of magazine publishing, that lesson has not yet been learned. With the entry of the “New iPad” with its high-resolution retina display, the traditional magazine model will come under increased pressure.

Here’s why: When magazines entered the digital space, they brought their “album-oriented” approach with them. Publishers call them “issues” or sometimes “editions,” but readers have called them loosely associated bundles of content, only a fraction of which they will actually read. Files sizes of existing digital magazines are already high and have become a pain point for users. As Steve Smith asks in MINonline, “For magazine publishers the next-gen iPad’s “Retina Display” raises an interesting math problem. The doubling of resolution and pixel density opens up worlds of opportunity for crafting even more luscious visual experiences. But at what cost to consumers already frustrated with the massive files size of many digital editions?”