Established in 1854, the British Journal of Photography is the world’s longest-running and most influential photography magazine, defining the future of photographic journalism. It counts readers all over the world, but some of the values that make it loved in print – in particular, the use of high quality paper, make it expensive to sell overseas. With the arrival of the Apple iPad, the BJP team saw a new way to bring the content readers love in print to a wider audience. In September 2011, they created an entirely new quarterly edition of the magazine, tailor made for the iPad, and launched it worldwide in the App Store.
BJP’s app is more than just a PDF version of the magazine. Designed specifically for the iPad’s unique features, it includes highlights from the print edition, alongside a raft of new photographs, multimedia and video content. Live news from BJP-Online is instantly accessible along with a widely used share function.
Before work commenced, a list of key requirements for the app was created, including that it must be custom-designed for the iPad, and it must work in both orientations on the iPad, while meeting the high design standards of the print magazine.
The iPad edition gives readers something new, providing the whole magazine experience – tightly curated content made up of in-depth articles, visually arresting imagery and elegant design – to a digital screen for the first time, bringing it to life in a way the web fails to do.
Just months after launch, the app had a readership five times the magazine’s print circulation (7601), and has now been downloaded over 200,000 times, in over 65 countries.
Mark Hartzog, Publisher, is delighted at the success of the app: “Secretly, we hoped to get near 10,000 downloads in the first year. We hit 175,000. We fulfilled a need for high quality content about photography that used the best assets of the iPad (its backlit, hi-res screen, and exceptionally intuitive navigational tools); something that was, and still is lacking otherwise. We bundled three months’ worth of content (and more) into each issue, giving readers hours of inspiration, on the move.”
And BJP tapped into another new technological trend – the arrival of broadcast quality video into professional quality digital SLR cameras, which meant photographers were now exploring filmmaking, and the app could showcase their best efforts.
Despite the first paid for edition being launched on the 20th December, it sold over 1000 copies in 2011, and reached the number 1 spot as the highest-grossing app in the UK Photo & Video category in iTunes in less than 24 hours after it launched. It also entered the charts at number 4 in the Newsstand category.
The BJP app has consistently been highlighted as “New & Noteworthy” in the Newsstand section of the App Store. It has also been added to the “Best of Newsstand” category and hit the top 10 Newsstand apps in the USA too.
BJP’s readership has increased over 2500% in just 15 months with the launch of the app. App subscribers have also surpassed print subscribers by over 70%.
The Media Pioneer Awards are designed to highlight innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in specialist consumer or B2B media, across print, web, digital or events. Winners will be announced at the Specialist Media Conference on 24 April 2013. The Media Pioneer Awards are run by the Specialist Media Show and supported by InPublishing.
More about how to enter the Media Pioneer Awards and stories of past entrants.
More about the Specialist Media Conference on 24 April 2013.
