On the Time Out website, sidebar links take users to a thinly-designed Groupon-esque page.
Although Loughlin did not reveal how the investment was apportioned, it’s a good bet that the lion’s share will focus on smart device users, with a large portion of funding dedicated specifically to iPad owners.
Why iPad owners? In August 2012,
Marketwatch.com reported that iPad owners “…tend to spend more at ecommerce sites than other tablet users. iPad owners spend US$158 per order… versus US$105 by people on other mobile devices.”
So far, the majority of editorial-
related ecommerce has been in the fashion space, with some expansion into other women-targeted lines such as home, garden, and lifestyle.
Time Out New York, a weekly covering
entertainment and events in New York City, is furthering this reach, selling event tickets through its website and iOS apps. On the Time Out website, sidebar links take users to a thinly-designed Groupon-esque page. In the app (an almost skeuomorphism- free assortment of boxy mosaic pages), users click a ‘book now’ link located
beneath social sharing icons. Purchases are made on a Time Out branded page within the app; tapping the close button returns users to their place in the app.
It may be clichéd, but the one thing digital
has taught us is that nothing is sacred and that Murphy’s Law —anything that can go wrong will go wrong—is alive and well in the publishing industry (consider Murdoch’s much-hyped but ill-fated The Daily.)
But as an industry, we have learned from
our mistakes. In the two years since the iPad’s debut, content creators and curators have argued, debated, and ultimately created interactive content that reaches beyond the familiar — and a fast-growing market has come out of nowhere to consume it.
The year 2012 was a bumper year
for magazine innovation. With the rise of ecommerce, 2013 may be a much- needed bumper year for new revenues.