From MIN Online. Full story here

Conde Nast continues its promised roll-out of print titles for the iPad. Vanity Fair was released late last week for both the iPhone and iPad at $4.99 an issue. The mobile iterations follow closely the model used in GQ. The full contents of the magazine can be thumbed in facsimile format when the iPad is in landscape mode. Facing pages appear on the screen and the usual multi-touch controls manage zooming. In portrait mode the current article’s text is rendered in a long scroll beneath the splash image, which can be zoomed to full screen or swiped to show any more images in the set. Text fonts in portrait mode can be enlarged.

Editorially, the mobile issues also add some extra content: video of the Hawaii shoot for the cast of Lost; an extended piece on the last season of the show, an extended profile of Emma Watson and an app-exclusive spotlight on illustrator Ed Sorel. On the advertising side several of the sponsors have video spots attached to the renderings of their print ads.

Vanity Fair for iPad follows a less radical approach to redesigning the magazine reading experience than Bonnier’s efforts with Popular Science’s iPad app. At the same time it accommodates the hardware more adroitly than Rodale’s Men’s Health, which adds more multimedia enhancement without altering the print format. Apparently recognizing recent complaints by iPad users that the single issue pricing of these apps is multiples higher than a subscription rate, Vanity Fair is giving a price break to customers. Once one buys the first iPad edition for $4.99, subsequent months will cost only $3.99.

This cuts especially deep, since Conde Nast is the smartest company being run by the smartest, best dressed people, or at least that is what they have always told me. 

This from paidcontent.org: 

"Working with McKinsey (the consultants), Townsend (Conde Nast CEO) and a Conde Nast team will “develop new perspectives on optimizing our approach to business, growing revenues, and enhancing our brand assets. All areas of Condé Nast will be included in the study.” Conde Naste has more than 30 brands between the consumer magazines, which include The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair, and the Fairchild Fashion Group"

Hopefully, McKinsey will take a look at not just personnel but the fundamental model of how Conde Nast goes about selling advertising. What would be great is if they could make the people at Conde Nast realize that they are not doing us all a favor just by allowing us to spend money with them. Not all Conde Nast titles are like this (Wired is an exception) but too many have an attitude that make the purchase of ad from them a very unpleasant experience.