...and now ePublishing
It looks like Richard Branson’s Virgin conglomerate is expanding into yet ANOTHER market: digital publishing.
That’s right, Virgin has teamed up with publishing company Seven Squared to come out with a new e-magazine called “Maverick.” The new e-mag’s main focus will mainly be on entrepreneurism, technology, and travel to target an “upscale international audience.” And here’s the kicker…
They’re going to publish it only through their custom app which they plan on making available for the iPad, iPhone, and eventually the Android. Meaning, this won’t be available to eReader devices like the Kindle, the Nook, or the Kobo. Only Apple/Android devices. Their reasoning?
“More than eight million people will own iPads by the end of the year,” the Virgin executive commented. “It’s the fastest-selling gadget ever and it’s the most exciting thing to happen to the magazine market in a long time, but no one has yet got it right.”
Plus, Maverick will be a PURELY digital publication and no corresponding print magazines will be made available. So pretty obviously, this will dramatically reduce the costs required to publish, or so they hope.
The entire project is expected to launch in October and will be led by daughter of Richard Branson, the 28-year old Holly Branson.
Thus far, Virgin has gotten itself into an amazing array of unrelated industries, yet have done so successfully on many accounts to the amazement of business analysts across the country. But all things considered, this latest venture into digital publishing to the mass public could prove to be another boldly successful move. Digital content is on fire at the moment and I don’t see it losing steam any time soon.
It’s definitely an encouraging move for the publishing industry in general which has faced a slow painful decline in a world transitioning to digital media. Prices for print media have gone up dramatically and have caused readers to question their value now that comparable content can be found for free instantly on the internet.
Printing on paper is expensive. Very much so compared to publishing digitally. It’s likely that many more magazines will realize the advantage of turning digital only and make the jump once the model has been proven successful. Could Virgin act as a catalyst for this revolution? Quite possibly, yes. And they have every right to feel that way as well.
Digital publications are on the rise and so is consumption. The release of the iPad is just fuel for the inevitable trend towards inexpensive digital publishing. 8 Million users are expected by the end of this year and that is definitely cause for optimism, wouldn’t you think?
