If print is dead, Esquire magazine isn’t going down without a fight. The Hearst publication has readily embraced the digital age — first with its E Ink cover in 2008 and most recently with its augmented reality issue.

Now the magazine is going one step further in its quest to evolve; it’s getting an iPhone app. Although Esquire isn’t the first magazine to bring its content to mobile devices, it does have one of the more unique strategies. For $2.99, users can buy the January issue of Esquire in an iPhone optimized version [iTunes link] from the App Store. The digital version allows users to easily browse through the magazine, access enhanced and extra content and save and share favorite portions with friends.

The design of the app suggests that you can download future issues as well (presumably using the iPhone’s in-app purchasing feature), and it makes it easy to scroll through different articles and sections using visual or textual indicators.

Watch this video to see how it works:

We went ahead and purchased the January issue and were impressed with how content is displayed. The iPhone’s accelerometer is supported, text size is adjustable and you can search through the issue and share your favorite parts by e-mail or on Facebook.

We were apprehensive of how a textually dense magazine like Esquire would translate on a smaller device, but the formatting is quite good and the presentation is very, very readable. A nice advantage of the mobile-optimized format is that for certain features — like in the “perfect song of the month” sidebar in the music column — you can actually listen to the song discussed.

Images can be viewed individually and can also be rotated for better viewing.

Esquire isn’t the first publisher to take to the iPhone — McSweeney’s launched an app in September that offers weekly content updates, exclusive short films, short stories and other stuff from the McSweeney’s universe (McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Wholphin and the website).

Esquire does a solid job of bringing a quality reading experience to a small device. I only wished that my iPhone was larger (although the text wasn’t hard to read at all). If the rumored Apple tablet ever does become a reality, this is the sort of app that could really make a solid argument for subscribing to digital magazines.

Will the iPhone app end up getting Esquire more subscribers? I’m not sure. At $2.99, it was less expensive and more convenient for me to buy the January issue on my phone than it would be to get it at a newstand — and it’s one less glossy to clutter up my mailbox. I would love to see Esquire offer an iPhone yearly subscription where content is automatically downloaded every month — just like with TV show subscriptions. Add in that type of convenience and traditional magazines might just make a comeback.

What do you think about iPhone apps for magazines?

Tags: digital magazines, esquire, iphone, magazines, print media

Go to Source