Landscape Only Sports Illustrated iPad App Blamed on Apple Subscription Policies

Time Inc has announced that their latest Sports Illustrated iPad edition will be landscape only as a cost cutting measure necessitated by Apple's unfair subscription policies.

Josh Quittner, editor at Time Inc., posted on his personal blog about the change. He first notes that landscape mode looks better and cutting out portrait mode makes downloads quicker, then he continues to explain that Time Inc. is trying to save on costs because Apple's subscription policies do not allow them to build a real business for the iPad.

"Doing away with the vertical view allows us to economize on resources. The brunt of the iPad issue falls on the shoulders of our designers—they’re the folks who, in one magazine after another here at Time Inc and elsewhere, are the people who suddenly added an extra day to their already busy weeks. (They’re also the ones, by the way, who continue to be most excited about the endless possibilities of designing in this medium.) This reduces their work load by a third, minimally.


Why not add more designers? Well, if we were able to build a real business, with subscriptions that offered our iPad versions to readers at a reasonable price, that would be a no brainer. But we can’t yet, so the best approach for us is to experiment with the format, marshal our (human) resources and start building products on other platforms that will allow us to scale up as our business grows."

Read More [via MediaMemo]