Magazines Are Up and iPadding Around

By itself is was going to be worth saying something about the panel discussion at the SXSW conference in Austin titled, "Could the iPad have saved Gourmet?" (i.e. Gourmet Magazine), that was reported by VentureBeat and picked-up by the MPA's Daily News Round-up. But, then, how to address that story without addressing the four related iPad stories that showed up in the same MPA Round-up, bang, bang, bang, bang, one after the other?

The most revealing part of the "Saving Gourmet" story was courtesy of panelist Rachel Sklar, Mediaite Editor at Large, who reportedly told attendees that she had proposed a session on the future of magazines to conference organizers and was denied (to the accompanying sound of many groans, I'm sure; as in, "Please (groan), can we give the whole suffering and dying magazine thing a rest!"). Then, Ms. Sklar explained, Apple's iPad debuted and suddenly - my interpretation - it's not a story about the tortuous end of magazines, but about new beginnings.

It's clear the magazine industry is sitting up and taking iPad for nourishment. The MPA's Daily News Round-up makes that very clear. Bang, bang, bang, bang.