Former Arena editor Anthony Noguera has been revealed as the editor of Richard Branson’s new monthly iPad-based magazine Project – which launched yesterday in New York.
Described as the “first global magazine app for creative people about creative people”, Project costs £1.79 ($2.99) per issue and describes itself as “an app that looks like a style magazine and acts like a website”.
It has been created by Virgin Group with UK-based contract publishing agency Seven Squared.
According to Virgin, Project will be updated throughout the month and cover design, entertainment, technology and entrepreneurs. It has 20 full-time staff.
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Noguera said: “I must be the luckiest editor alive. To be given the opportunity to create a magazine that is completely unique and innovative, to work with like-minded journalists, contributors and advertisers who are just as passionate and excited as I am about Project has been inspiring.”
In an interview with CNN, Branson revealed that Project will move on to other platforms after the iPad. As to whether it will make money, he said: “I think it will pay the bills, my approach is to create the best magazine on the iPad, if we create the best and it’s a really fun magazine…hopefully will get many people to subscribe to it and it will pay the bills and enable us to launch some more projects…”
Speaking at the launch yesterday, he responded to the suggestion that the new project was intended to take on Rupert Murdoch’s planned iPad-only newspaper – The Daily.
“If it’s a battle, it’s a battle over quality. Based on 30 years of reading News of the World and other papers [Murdoch] publishes, I think on quality we’ll be willing to be judge”, the Guardian reported.
Branson revealed on his blog that Project has been spearheaded by his daughter Holly.
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