As you read a food magazine these days, it's hard to miss the fact that the print editors are prominently featuring the digital extensions of the magazines. You can barely turn a page without running into an ad for apps for the iPhone and iPad.
In our Part 1 post on this topic, we looked at what Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, and Cooking Light are offering on the iPad. Here's a glance at where other food mags stand, and what we think about the full crop of applications.
Sample recipe with video from Everyday Food
Like its big sister Martha Stewart Living, Everyday Food is a leader in this space.
The EF app seems less flashy than Living's, but it's just as engaging. Sprinkled throughout the August issue are a dozen videos that clearly walk you through the making of a dish. Uncertain about frying chicken or making a cantaloupe custard? You can watch brief, fast-paced videos showing you exactly what to do.
The app is also filled with fun galleries and animated photos. As you swipe through a feature on desserts, for example, the desserts build themselves, layer by layer. Tap an ice cream sundae to see other topping variations. Click a tip to get another tip. It all makes for a fun, immersive reading experience.
Martha Stewart has created other apps as well. In addition to the magazine-specific apps, there's one for building your own smoothies, another for making cookies and a third for making cocktails.
Food Network Magazine has just gotten into the app game, releasing one called "Summer 2011" that features content from the July/August Grilling Issue. It, too, has videos and a quiz built in. One really great feature that sets the Food Network Magazine app apart: As you flag recipes you want to make, the app builds a shopping list for you (and you can add your own items to the list, too).
In lieu of creating an app itself, Bon Appétit offers some content as a channel on another app called Flipboard. Flipboard takes web content and turns it into a magazine-like feature. In the case of Bon Appétit, it presents the content from bonappetit.com in a format you can easily flip through.
But it doesn't offer anything "new" in terms of content, just a different way to view it.
The magazine offers an overview of what it looks like on its website.
A look at Bon Appétit on FlipBoard
Saveur has launched an app as well, but the issues so far are identical to the print version. If you're flipping through the magazine, it's a nearly identical experience. There are no videos or other added features.
America's Test Kitchen has launched an iPhone app for Cook's Illustrated that is an extension of its "Premium Membership" website, but there isn't yet anything for the iPad.
And lastly, Fine Cooking will be offering their "Recipe Makers" (which are excellent, if you haven't tried them) as apps, but they're not yet available to purchase for iPad. The Brownie Recipe Maker is available for iPhone.
The Pricing
Here's a quick rundown of how much cost is involved with each of these digital versions.
Magazine Cost of App Cost of Digital Issues
Martha Stewart Living Free $3.99 per issue
Saveur Free $1.99 per issue or $19.99 per year
Everyday Food Free $2.99 per issue
Food & Wine Free $3.99 per issue
Food Network Summer $3.99 n/a
Martha Stewart Cookies $4.99 n/a
Martha Stewart Cocktails $2.99 n/a
The Bottom Line
So how do we feel about all these apps?
Well, we have no complaints about the apps themselves. Martha Stewart Living and Everyday Food are especially interesting extensions of the magazines. The reading experience is incredibly enjoyable, and there's definitely some added value to what you get in the print editions of those two magazines.
But there is the not insignificant matter of cost.
The Martha Stewart Living and Food & Wine issues are $3.99 each, and there doesn't yet appear to be a subscription available. Saveur seems to be the only magazine offering a subscription model at the moment. Issues are $1.99 each or $19.99 for a year (the same as a print subscription). If you're already getting the print versions of these magazines, we're not sure how you could justify the cost of buying each digital version, too. We know we can't.
And pardon us if we sound like luddites, but we happen to really love our print magazines. We like dog-earing our magazines and leafing through the pages. At some point that may change, but for now, we can't imagine supplanting our subscription with these digital editions.
What about you? Are you buying digital editions of food magazines? Will you?
Previously: Food Mags on the iPad: First Impressions (Part 1)
