• Media Memo et al., Monday, March 1, 2010 12:52 PM

Though nothing is finalized and hurdles remain, Condé Nast is nearing a deal with Apple to distribute its most popular titles over the iPad. So, let the iPad testing begin! According to The New York Times, "Condé Nast plans to test different prices, types of advertising and approaches to digitizing the magazines for several months before wrapping up the experiment in the fall."

"We need to know a little bit more about what kind of a product we can make, how consumers will respond to it, what the distribution system will be," Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director of Condé Nast, tells The Times.

The first titles, er, slated to appear on the forthcoming e-reader include Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, GQ, and Glamour, reports The Times.

According to MediaMemo, however, the biggest hurdle remains Apple's unwillingness to play nice with software giant Adobe.

"Condé is still creating a digital version of [Wired] for the device," the blog writes. "But the influential publisher says it won't create similar iPad apps for other titles unless Apple and Adobe figure out how to work together."

The result will likely be far less ambitious iPad-friendly versions of Condé's magazines, MediaMemo adds. "The Wired iPad app Condé Nast showed off this month looks great," it writes. "But the chances that the publisher will give its other magazines the same treatment don't look promising."

Another side effect of Apple's hatred of all things Flash is the fact that Condé is now pursuing an "R&D period" that is expected to run through October, and which will explore at least two new distribution models that have nothing to with the iPad.

Indeed, Condé will have "two parallel development tracks going until the relationship between Apple and Adobe is clear," Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend tells MediaMemo.

More than a mere snag, some insiders say Apple's control issues -- with regard to distribution -- represent its Achilles' heal, and could eventually hasten its downfall.

John Battelle, for one, says he doesn't like the iPad because, "it's driven by the same old media love affair with distribution lock in ... It's an old school, locked in distribution-channel that doesn't want to play by the new rules of search+social."

Read the whole story at Media Memo et al. »