Magazines have been taking a bit of a beating on the iPad lately. But if there’s one that’s getting it right, it’s Virgin’s PROJECT Magazine.
It’s as if PROJECT Magazine is not just taking the magazine to the iPad, but the in-flight magazine to the iPad. Each issue reads like a hybrid of the best in business, technology and celebrity, without coming off as too pretentious in any of those categories. It’s meant to inform and entertain, and that mandate appears paramount as soon as you flick through the first few pages.
Now I may fall into the publication’s target demographic,1 but the execution of the magazine is appealing to eyes both young and old.
I caught on to the iPad-only magazine when Stephen Colbert made an appearance in issue 3 dressed as the very founder of the publication interviewing him — his faux-nemesis Sir Richard Branson. The cover of the magazine features Colbert in full “Bransonian” garb, but it isn’t any regular cover. It turns into a video upon loading of him vacuuming the carpet with a nude model on his back. It’s those enhancements that aren’t entirely necessary, but are seemingly simple and fluid that make PROJECT a class act.
As with any iPad-based magazine, downloading PROJECT can take a bit of time. But unlike so many other iPad-based magazines, the content and presentation are well worth the wait.
1 To be honest, I’m a little bit older than the demographic: young, affluent males between the ages of 25-35. But I’m not that much older.
