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Comment by chj | Hacker News Reader

I don't get it. This type of app is extremely fit for web. Tying to a single platform doesn't really make sense.

People have said things like that to me about my e-mail newsletters (example: http://javascriptweekly.com/). I eventually caved and added RSS but hardly anyone uses that. The fact is, the medium does matter and people respond to different media in different ways.

For example, even though a lot of people say they'd rather learn from written articles, you can sell a bunch of videos in a set for $249 in a way that the equivalent set of articles would not sell.

Likewise, there have been experiments with selling free Web content on the Kindle for a few bucks.. and it sells like hotcakes despite being free on the Web. These are interesting times and it's worth going with what people are doing rather than what people are saying they want. (Though while always experimenting and ensuring you don't ignore your audience.)

Tying it to one platform only "doesn't make sense" in a generic and irrelevant pseudo-strategic sense. The reality is that "The Magazine" is one dude making something neat in the time he's not spending on his multiple other business endeavors, applying the skills he's got and probing for market potential.

Plus the idea that you can do something this seamless and elegant on the web is horseshit. You can't subscribe to any web magazines in under ten seconds. (and if you could, odds are that they'd fill your inbox with spam.)

The iPad/iOS match this precisely. People who own iPads have demonstrated they are willing to pay for content. The App is beautiful - it pulls you into focussing 100% on the content in front of you, unlike a web browser with it's endless diversions to the left and right.

Web browsers do not have diversions, badly designed web sites do. The articles in The Magazine are simple HTML and a clean CSS. If you go to the web site and read the foreword, it looks exactly like the app.

The only reason I can imagine, and mind you it is a BIG reason, to make The Magazine an app is the business model.

I don't know about your screen - but mine has 20+ bookmarks, 10+ open tabs, and (currently) about six different applications visible on my screen. 5 seconds ago I was on a Tab looking at the Presidential Debates before I came over to HN - 5 seconds from now I"ll be on OmniFocus, which is visible 2" to the right of the browser screen.

I read the web on my laptop, differently than I consume content iPad. When I read "The Magazine" it launched the App, and it took over 100% of my iPad experience, and I spent the next 20 minutes reading through the four (excellent) articles, completely free of distraction.

I'm willing to pay $2 for 8, carefully curated, selected, edited, and written articles from Marco Arment, presented to me on my iPad.

Those 4 articles, on Life/Love/Technology, on Volatiles vs Stables, and the impact on how to manage engineering companies, on the concept of "Voice" and the linkBlob/Fireball format, and the schism in Geeks who Love Sports, and those who don't and really, what is the central essence of being a Geek - are timeless, and I'm confident I'll re-read in months to come.

Finally - I love the idea of finding an outlet to sponsor those who contribute so much of the great content that I consume, in this structured way. I hope "The Magazine" is very successful, and provides an income for those who write such great material.

He's said that it's possible that he'll move it to web at some point in the future.

I think people should view this as iOS first rather than iOS only. I think it's a pragmatic decision rather than some sort of "iOS or death" principal.

It does if the majority of your buyers are on that one platform.

I think iOS is his test bed and easy way to get paid, fast. Web could pretty easily follow. I even say as much at the bottom of the article :-)

Getting paid for articles you write is extremely fit for the web?

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