Condé Nast UK will later this year make its debut on the iPad with specially formulated editions of its flagship magazines Vogue and Wired.
The launches will mark the next phase of the company’s digital development, managing director Nicholas Coleridge said today, as he predicted that up to 40 per cent of future sales could eventually come through digital platforms.
The December issues of Vogue and Wired will be launched on the iPad in early November, each as a ‘one-off’to help the publisher learn about the new device ahead of further digital launches throughout 2011.
The luxury magazine publisher will take its first foray into mobile publishing with its men’s titles GQ next month by launching as an app on the iPhone later in the year along with also launching an iPhone app for weddings title, Brides.
Senior executives from Condé Nast outlined the planned launches this morning in a briefing to journalists, colleagues and media buyers about the publisher’s ongoing digital strategy at London’s Royal Institution.
Coleridge told the briefing that by the end of the year the publisher would have launched 36 iPad and iPhone versions of its magazine titles as the company looked to integrate its digital and print operations further.
Print and digital editorial teams were being mixed, Coleridge said, to ‘join the dots across our business”, and the company had increased cross-platform ad sales – he said.
Revenue from cross-media sales was up 62 per cent year on year, Coleridge said, and now accounted for a fifth of revenue while digital ad sales had increased 32 per cent despite difficult trading conditions.
Coleridge predicted that in 15 years time Condé Nast would have a thriving print and digital business with around 30/40 per cent of its sales coming through the iPhone, iPad or similar devices as it doubled the number of brands it has in the digital marketplace.
Albert Read, Condé Nast general manager, said the November iPad launches in the UK followed the launch of Wired, GQ and Vanity Fair on the device in the US.
More than 100,000 purchases of the iPad version of Wired had been made since launch earlier this year, he said, and the company would soon launch an iPad version of the New Yorker.
The UK iPad launches, Read said, would be built using the Adobe platform but should be seen as ‘work in progress”.
Read said that video, 360 degree images, slideshows and product tours would all feature in the iPad versions.
Condé Nast is also planning to complete a revamp of all its magazine websites in the next six months with Tatler next in line for a facelift.
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