Huffington magazine will debut exclusively on the iPad with both a free preview issue (pictured right) and a first issue, which costs $0.99. Future issues will be released on Fridays and can be purchased for $0.99 apiece, or through a $1.99-per-month subscription following a one-month free trial.
The issues, which I inspected at AOL's headquarters in Manhattan Tuesday, contain two to three longform features authored largely, proportionately speaking, by writers poached over the last year from The New York Times, including Peter Goodman and Lisa Belkin. Features are accompanied by short reviews (films, music, books, etc.) and "bite-sized" news and entertainment pieces. Photography is rich and often full-screen. Video, illustrations and a single, interactive infographic are spread throughout.
I haven't yet read the issues cover-to-cover, but what I did read was clean, stylish and in-depth: Huffington reads more like Newsweek than huffingtonpost.com. The design is also exceptional, the product of talent hired from Bloomberg Businessweek, Billboard, Fortune and Wired, Tim O'Brien, executive editor of The Huffington Post (and another NYT alum) said proudly. Altogether, there are about two dozen designers and editorial staffers dedicated to the magazine full-time. Content is produced entirely by in-house staff.
The software used to make the magazine is also homegrown. Issues are light -- between 90 to 100 megabytes when optimized for the iPad 3's retina display, or about a quarter of the size of a typical issue of Wired, says O'Brien. Pages have been exported as image files, which are light but unfortunately cannot be highlighted or annotated.
I was pleased to see the inclusion of a live commenting system, which has been thus far left out of most tablet magazines. Readers can also share content through Facebook, Twitter, email and Safari. Any content shared will be made available for reading as a live HTML page. The magazine's content will not otherwise be made available on the web.
Toyota has signed on as the exclusive launch sponsor; two to three ads from the auto manufacturer will appear in the first issue. The format allows AOL to compete for magazine ad dollars for the first time by offering a "rich, Conde Nast-like experience," O'Brien said.
In a Q&A with several other journalists, O'Brien dismissed suggestions that Huffington would eventually appear in print. He did say that the company could envision a "stable of magazines" one day, should this first launch prove successful.