Fortune changes its iPad strategy

Fortune is introducing Monday a new iPad edition that presents readers with a visually appealing mix of free and paid content, an effort to make the app worth swiping through even if you’re not a subscriber, reports Nat Ives of Advertising Age.

Ives writes, “Fortune’s iPad app, like those of most magazines, had previously opened to a storefront — offering nothing to see until you open your wallet or show that you already subscribe.

“‘Most of the industry has little or no contact with the consumers who have downloaded the shell but have elected not to become regular issue buyers or subscribers,’ said Jed Hartman, group publisher for Fortune and CNNMoney.com. ‘This creates a dialogue and relationship with them.’

“Exceptions to the storefront-first approach, such as The Atlantic, are rare. And Fortune, part of Time Inc., is trying to better integrate the paid and unpaid content than others that have tried something similar.

“Fortune hopes people who spend time with the app under its ‘freemium’ strategy will convert into paying subscribers. But nonpaying readers also create a new opportunity for Fortune to serve up ads. The initial sponsors are Credit Suisse, Ally Bank and Brocade.

“The app will continue to include all the ads from the print edition as well.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.