Biz magazine content on the iPhone

Justin Ellis of Nieman Labs looks at how Bloomberg Businessweek is experimenting with delivering its content in different ways for iPhone readers.

Ellis writes, “As on the iPad, Businessweek offers magazine articles, videos, audio interviews, and more; new issues of the magazines are downloaded into the Newsstand. Aside from obligatory design differences, the apps are identical in content; neither offers the regular updating of a daily news app.

“The company says the app, which launched this time last year, has gained more than 100,000 subscribers on the iPad. The iPhone version is an attempt at opening up that number a little further. Oke Okaro, the global head of mobile for Bloomberg, told me it only makes sense to put its product on a device people have with them at all times. ‘Every waking hour of the day, smartphones are in our hands. We fully expect that we’re going to see a different type of usage,’ Okaro said.

“Bloomberg did add one new element in the iPhone app: it gives readers a word count for stories, making it easier to pick out the most digestible piece given whatever amount of time you have. “We know through the course of the day on iPhone people are going to come in and out, and we want to give them a perspective of the (time) commitment,” he said.

“One feature both versions share is the ability to play audio in the background, whether reading a story in the app or doing other tasks on your iPad or iPhone. Okaro believes that would be handy to someone reading on a bus, the subway or waiting for an appointment. In other words, someone most likely using a smartphone.”

Read more here.