• The New York Times, Thursday, July 1, 2010 12:08 AM

Most publishers are aggressively experimenting with  new electronic devices that could replace their paper-based magazines, newspapers and books -- and the revenue they get from those products. Some products for digital devices have clearly been more successful than others. The challenge has been to find the right mix of content, design and community that can stand apart from the publishers' content given away on the Web.Yet some magazine apps are still shy about socializing, notes The New York Times.

Take the Wired iPad application. It  includes Wired's storytelling and offers some fun and informative graphics. But it's missing one small thing: the Internet. Readers can't copy and paste links or text, they can't comment on interesting articles with other readers, and they can't instantly post a comment to Twitter or write, share it or "like" it on Facebook. The Time magazine application, although beautifully designed, doesn't offer the ability to easily share content from within the app either.

Sarah Rotman, an analyst with Forrester Research, says it isn't that these companies don't want to put to social features in; they just haven't had time to move up the learning curve of a new medium. "This is completely new to them," she said.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »