Condé Nast Commits to a New Core Competency
May 2, 2011
We love to hear people say “We told you so.” We won’t use that phrase in this brief write up about Condé Nast’s about face. The company has backed off developing iPad instances of Condé Nast magazines. It seems that even affiliation with the popular iPad does not guarantee success in the online world. According to MacRumors.com’s article “Condé Nast Slowing Plans for iPad Magazines Amid Weak Sales,” the company has decided to slow down its initial plan to put all of its magazines on the iPad due to weak sales of the titles currently offered. The article states:
“It’s a shift,” one Condé publisher said. “The official stance was we’re going to get all our magazines on the iPad because this is going to be such an important stream. The new change is maybe we can slow it down. In my opinion it makes Condé look smart because we have the ambition, but we’re not rushing.”
We interpret this alleged comment to mean, “We are losing money on our original idea.”
Instead of Condé Nast pushing forward on the magazine, each individual magazine publisher will be responsible for developing their own iPad applications while Condé Nast vows to focus more on generating unique iPad applications and offering clients exclusive content. With publishers taking on the non traditional role of software developers one must wonder who is focusing on the actual content.
In my view, a magazine is good at selling ads around commissioned content. The shift is that a magazine outfit is going to produce software and rich media. In short, Condé Nast has a new core competency. Snap. Just like that. So easy. Just like search. Piece of cake.
Stephen E Arnold, May 2, 2011
Freebie unlike software development
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
