IOS 5 Newstand: paid app top of heap

Rather than continuing to post in the existing Church magazines on iPad thread, I'll open this up: Aaron Watson's "Ensign" app continues to be top of the paid apps on the iOS newsstand. $.99 is not a big deal but I actually don't want to rely on an individual packaging the magazine each month. What would it take for ldstech to put out a church magazines newsstand app?

I use the LDSScriptures App to download PDF's of the Ensign. But yes, I too wiould very much like to see iOS5 Newsstand versions of the Church News, Church Magazines and Deseret News. There are many (millions) of us members who need to cram as much good information into our lives as we possibly can.

I know Gospel Library app exists for iOS. My Android version has magazines, including the Ensign.

Yes - The Gospel Library App is great - But if you want the full PDF version of the magazines - you either have to download from lds.org and open, or use another app outside of what the church has produced. They are all great methods. Having it in the iOS5 Newsstand would be the best.

The gospel library app is great and all but it does not auto download magazines and conference. Newsstand would be an excellent fit from a user perspective.

What do we know about the difficulty of producing and maintaining a newsstand app?
Is it reasonable given that there is not likely to be.a corrollary on other platforms (I.e to preserve consistency we should really build auto update into gospel library).

I'm interested in donating my magazine apps (Ensign, New Era, Friend, Liahona) to the Church. Who should I contact?

aaronwatson wrote:I'm interested in donating my magazine apps (Ensign, New Era, Friend, Liahona) to the Church. Who should I contact?

Aaron,
I have been trying to track down your phone number. I would like to talk to you about your apps and discuss a proposal with you. I would post my number but I'm not sure if it's allowed in this forum. Please email me your number at jared@halfillusion.com. Thanks so much.

teterhorn wrote:I would post my number but I'm not sure if it's allowed in this forum.

A PM (private message) would be the best way to handle that.

My name is Emily Hedrick with the Media Services Department (formally Audiovisual). Just to give you a little background, over the past 1-2 months there has been a joint project between ICS, Curriculum and MSD to create interactive magazines/books. Digital publishing is definitely a space we are interested in moving into. We are looking at publishing to tablets-- specifically the iPad and then Android Marketplace to start. As we move forward, I'll update this thread with any links or announcements as we get going. We're always looking for suggestions, feedback and trying to understand what people want in digital magazines or books. Feel free to respond to this thread or email me directly at: emily@ldschurch.org

We are live on iTunes for our first interactive magazine and book. We have the October General Conference issue and this is a beta test to see the reception behind a digital version of the Ensign magazine. We are using the same digital magazine platform that National Geographic, Wired and Martha Stewart Living use to create their interactive magazines. In addition to the Ensign magazine, we also have created an interactive book titled "The Coat". This is an interactive storybook based on the animation that has recently come out.

LDS Ensign App:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lds-ensi ... 12950?mt=8

The Coat app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-coat ... 34160?mt=8

To clarify these links are for iPad-only apps (as Emily indicated above they would be).
Maybe, Emily, you could comment on
(a) whether the iOS newstand is a conducive platform or
(b) whether you expect to handle subscriptions through the LDS Ensign App exclusively.
(c) One commenter was dismayed by the file size for the beautiful interactive content that platform takes advantage of, would a newstand version be smaller--if less interactive?