Conde Nast Thinks You’ll Buy Mags As iPhone Apps, $US3 A Piece

People bitching that B&N and Amazon charge $US10 for sweet lengthy timeless novels get ready: Conde Nast wants to sell monthly ad-supported magazines, rejiggered for your iPhone, for $US3 each, starting with December issue of GQ.

According to AdAge, the “issue” will show every actual page of the print mag, plus have text optimised for iPhone. There will be related videos and audio, and an opportunity for you, the paying customer, to visit advertisers’ websites without quitting the app. Aren’t you lucky?

Regardless of whether or not you’ll bite, Conde believes this is the only logical stepping stone across the stream towards tablets and ebook readers. “If you can get here, you’re ready to go there,” AdAge quotes President-CEO Charles H. Townsend as saying. Logistically true or not, the statement certainly supports our recent report that the Apple Tablet is going to be the place where magazines and other publications go to redefine themselves. Well, they gotta go somewhere, cuz standing still sure ain’t working. [AdAge via Romenesko]