Bloomberg has launched Businessweek+, the first iPad version of the company’s print magazine. The publication is the latest to support Apple’s in-app subscription system: a four-issue digital subscription costs $3, versus $5 buying through a newsstand. Print subscribers get the iPad version for free.
Additional Features
- The ability to search across issues by company or keyword, save articles in a personal library, and share favorite stories via email, Twitter and Facebook.
- A special “Highlights” section which gives a quick synopsis of the week’s top articles.
- A dedicated navigation bar and global table of contents make it easy to discover articles and other information.
The app notably takes a stripped-down approach when compared to magazines like Project, Wired or The Daily. Content is limited almost exclusively to images and text, the exceptions in the first issue being an intro video and an audio interview with Barclay’s Charlie Rose. iPad magazines have often focused on extras like 3D animation, mini-apps or extended video segments; omitting such material though will keep the filesize of Businessweek+ down to about 30MB per issue. There are also no plans for an Android app in the near future, in part because Bloomberg remarks that 17 percent of its print subscribers already have an iPad.
