When news of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s death was revealed on Tuesday morning, it was too late for Sports Illustrated to change the cover photo of its print edition, featuring basketball star Lebron James and two of his new teammates. It was not, however, too late to alter the cover of the iPad edition of this week’s issue.
“We all sort of looked at [each] other, and said, ‘you know, this is an opportunity to do this,’ and why wouldn’t we?” Editor Terry McDonnel told AllThingsD.
The cover was accompanied by an article by Tom Verducci, which iPad readers can access alongside the original LeBron cover story. Verducci’s piece will be made freely available on SI.com later this week so that print subscribers and purchasers — as well as anyone else who wants to read the story, for that matter — can read it before the next issue.
The cover change has interesting implications for the future of publishing on the iPad. Publishers have historically endeavored to replicate the print versions of their magazines as closely as possible on the device, utilizing the platform only to toss in a few digital extras, like video and interactive graphics. iPad apps are not treated like news or magazines sites, where content is refreshed multiple times per day — although Sports Illustrated’s app does have a SI.com story feed embedded.
iPad publishing won’t change too much, however, at least for the present. McDonnel says that the magazine does not plan to make a habit out of replacing or adding content to the app in the future, although the brand may do another cover swap if the occasion presents itself.
What do you think of the cover swap? Should magazines try to offer their readers more current or extra content on the iPad, or provide the same experience as print?
The Two Covers
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