Publisha, a new entrant to the digital publishing space, has launched a new free service for magazine publishers. Here is the info from Anna Sjostrom:

According to the All Things Digital, Conde Nast and Adobe have gone 'back to the drawing board' to develop an iPad compatible version of Wired magazine. Adobe and Conde Nast partnered last summer in an exercise to develop the next generation magazine platform with Wired as the poster child.

Interesting video on the development of Popular Science+, the digital magazine version of Popular Science. Fascinating how their design team has identified the new constraints required for development.

Congratulations to Winding Road (and NextScreen Labs) for the launch Winding Road Weekly on the Amazon Kindle. Winding Road Weekly, a weekly magazine for car enthusiasts delivered to approximately 300,000 weekly by e-mail, is now be available for Kindle readers as well.

Compared to print publications, digital magazines demonstrate much more flexibility in advertising. Full-page ads can be delivered dynamically, so that after a certain number of page views the ad is shown, regardless of the position in the magazine. Also, ads can be limited to a certain number, preventing readers from feeling overwhelmed.

Woodwing, a firm that develops plug-ins for Adobe Indesign (The tool that 90% of magazines use) among other software products, is currently working on a new plug-in that will enable art teams to create iPad versions of their magazines. While it is still is in development take a look at it Here.

Fortunately, extensive research has already been conducted regarding user behavior and is available online and in books. The following are a few notable online behavioral characteristics.
1.)    Online Reading and Content Consumption: Studies conducted by web usability consultants Jakob Nielsen, Steve Krug and others show that users consume information differently in computer-based or mobile environments as opposed to print.

Digital magazines remove the traditional constraints of flowing text. But while some physical constraints can be eliminated, digital constraints—such as the clarity of fonts—must be taken into consideration. Additionally, other variables during the design process must be accounted for, since there may be some incompatibilities between software and e-reader technologies.

If your interested in learning about Interactive Advertising in Digital Magazines check out Josh Gordon's comprehensive report, "The Case for Interactive Advertising in Digital Magazines" . Josh has done an amazing job.

In case you've somehow missed this video, here is the Wired Magazine digital magazine. It is a phenomenal example of what can be achieved but this 'exploration' is a research and development effort but isn't easily repeatable for most organizations with limited resources.