Wired Mag’s iPad App Nearly Matches Newsstand Sales
In just nine days, Wired magazine’s iPad app sales have nearly equaled their typical monthly newsstand sales, Crain’s New York Business reports. Early buzz — and likely many curiosity seekers — drove more than 73,000 downloads at $4.99 each. That compares to Conde Nast’s official media kit information that shows December 2009 ABC numbers at 82,357 for individual copies.
Of course, these numbers pale in comparison to the total paper subscription number of 672,217. And all are less than the approximately 2 million monthly unique web visitors, according to estimates from Quantcast.
Nevertheless, the strong initial sales should provide a glimmer of hope to the magazine industry. There is at least some level of willingness by consumers to spend cash for content — despite all of the “content wants to be free” complainers.
The trick for Wired — and other publishers — will be to translate this initial interest into long-term revenue viability.
Additional Resources
- Wired magazine’s iPad liftoff from Crain’s New York Business by Matthew Flamm
- Conde Nast’s media kit for Wired
- Quantcast traffic estimates for Wired.com
- Official Wired iPad App Page