The Virginia Quarterly Review has created a digital edition specifically tailored for the iPad. The literary magazine from the University of Virginia has become one of the first magazines to create such an edition and sell it directly through Apple's iBookstore. A free 29-page sample of the magazine's current issue can be downloaded here. VQR is selling its digital editions for $3.99, as compared to the $14.99 price for the print issue.
Speaking to the magazine's push to get into the iBookstore, managing editor Kevin Morrissey said one attractive feature with Apple's storefront is the fact that it supports ePub. "It is important to us that we distribute VQR in a manner that is open, unencumbered by the limitations of digital rights management and patents," Morrissey explained. The magazine also created the ePub edition in-house which developer Waldo Jaquith said "is a testament to the simplicity of the format." Jaquith added that creating the digital editions proved economical for the magazine. "Rather than building a stand-alone app for the iPad, as so many other magazines have done, we were able to leverage our existing website content and create this version at a fraction of the cost of a proprietary app."
