Illustreret Videnskab First Danish Magazine for the iPad

Illustreret Videnskab - Science Illustrated - is the first Danish magazine launched for the Apple iPad with the new Illustreret Videnskab+. Launched today, Illustreret Videnskab+ is available at Apple's App Store, here.

"It's been an incredibly instructive process to convert a magazine into a new electronic format," says Søren Prien, development director for Bonnier Publications in Denmark. "The first trials we did were ambitious but sprawling and not so easy to navigate. But we think we've found the right way to reinvent the magazine for the new platform."

Like Popular Science+, Bonnier's first magazine for the iPad, the new Illustreret Videnskab+ preserves all the qualities that make magazines a powerful, popular medium-inspired packaging of carefully curated content by a team of expert editors, delivered in a visually compelling issue with a beginning, middle and end-and at the same time to reinvent it in a way that makes it come to life on the iPad's screen, says Prien.

"For a magazine like Illustreret Videnskab, it's easy to use print and glossy paper to combine text, images and illustrations in order to make complex relationships transparent," says editor-in-chief Jens Matthiesen. "The challenge is to do it on an iPad. But we've succeeded, not least because the pictures are even more gorgeous than those in the printed magazine."

The challenges were many, echoes Prien. "The iPad has a smaller screen, which means it has limitations. But we've been very careful to make sure everything in the print magazine is also in the iPad version. It's not a 'Illustreret Videnskab' light. Every image and fact box are in both the print magazine and the iPad version, so the price is the same whether you buy it in print or for the iPad."

Illustreret Videnskab has been quick to the draw, since the iPad has not been released in Denmark yet - overwhelming demand for the iPad has meant launching delays in many countries, including Denmark and Sweden. Nonetheless, the iPad is very visible in Denmark, Prien says, since Danes have brought home iPads that they've purchased abroad. Some sources in the industry estimate that there are as many as 10,000 iPads in Denmark already.