Conde Nast Prepping Paperless Magazines for iPad

by Chris Santiago · 2010-03-03 14:18:00 UTC
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Can the iPad save the publishing industry? Maybe, maybe not: But if publishing giant Conde Nast's actions are any indication, the iPad may end up saving millions of trees each year.

Conde Nast announced that it is ramping up plans to create digital versions of some of its prized publications, including Wired, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Glamour magazines. The publishing king will test different markets, distribution systems, and ad formats, with an eye toward digitizing other magazines.

The digital magazines will be available through iTunes starting in April, although an iPhone app for GQ is already available and has sold thousands of copies.

Digital subscriptions, of course, could put a dent in the more than 35 million trees the magazine industry fells each year, although Inhabitat points out that the jury is still out on what kind of environmental impact the iPad may or may not have. (According to Apple, the iPad doesn't contain the common e-toxins PVCs, arsenic, mercury or BFR.)

Still, when you take into account the fact that about 2.2 million tons of paper are used to print magazines each year, it's hard not to see a silver lining. I don't think I'm alone in wondering just what the heck some of those New Yorker cartoons are about; now, at least, I won't waste any paper thinking about it!

Photo Credit: ArabCrunch

Chris Santiago is a freelance writer and editor. He most recently worked at McGraw-Hill and "got green" at Oberlin College.
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