e-Wired

Article in today's Journal

Condé Preparing E-Reader Version of Wired
by Russell Adams

Condé Nast Publications Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. are building a digital version of Condé Nast’s Wired magazine for electronic reading devices.

Makes logical sense that people reading the magazine would like it to be electronic.

The Wired e-reader application will be available by the middle of next year and will kick off similar efforts across Condé Nast’s magazines, which include Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. Condé Nast declined to say how much money it was spending on the effort.

Publishers have struggled to render magazines on mobile devices. That is partly because most existing e-readers don’t allow for color or many of the design elements deemed necessary to sell ads and incorporate key features of the magazine-reading experience. Condé Nast executives said they expect that by the time the Wired product is ready, e-readers will have access to a new generation of hardware capable of supporting it.

Magazine reading experience. I always thought it was simply reading.

As with many existing Web and mobile editions of magazines, the Wired application will let readers “flip” through the pages of the magazine as it appears in print. Readers will be able to zoom and pan on images, launch videos and link to the Web, as well as sync the application to their smart phones.

Unlike with existing products, Wired editor Chris Anderson said, the next wave of e-readers and platforms like Adobe’s will incorporate the rich design and “lean-back elements” that are among magazines’ chief strengths.

Condé Nast, a unit of Advance Publications Inc., has moved more slowly than some of its peers in pushing its magazines beyond print. Now it is putting a heavy emphasis on its digital business at a time when its print business has come under great strain. The publisher this year has laid off hundreds of employees and closed a handful of magazines.