Magazine apps that I wish existed
Feb 02, 2010 in Uncategorized
I was going to do a round-up of magazine apps on the iPhone but I got lazy. I still might, but for now, you’re going to have to just read this post on apps that don’t currently exist but probably should. Note that they focus on men’s magazines. I did get a chance to download both the GQ and Esquire apps and was pretty unimpressed by both of them. Both apps are essentially straight lifts of their magazines with a few multimedia frills thrown in. Yawn. Here’s their preview:
If you’re curious, journalism instructor and online editor Kat Tancock reviews the GQ app.
1) the Esquire drinks app
What Esquire is good at are drinks, they’ve done whole books about them. They even have a databse on their website. As a bonus, the ad guys at the mag could very easily sell ads on this. Some of their high-end drink clients would undoubtedly bank-roll a drinks/bartending application
2) Esquire/GQ girl of the day
Hey, if newspapers can run photos of a sunshine girl, why can’t Esquire and GQ? The magazine already runs features like these in the magazine. It’d be easy to repurpose. It would also be a good way to upsell the full-mag. Preview a photo from a spread and point to your website or your mag.
3) A shopping app for men
Women have the app from shopping mag Lucky, but the boys are screwed. Hey, we like stuff too. And it doesn’t have to be all clothes. You know. Wired’s got one, but everyone knows Wired is for nerds. You guys are cool.