'Project' - the IPad magazine - is the future arriving

LOS ANGELES, Calif., USA - The Los Angeles Times today ran a story about Richard Branson's latest project - a magazine that can only be accessed via an Apple IPad. It's available at Apple stores as an IPad app.

LINK: IPad only magazine - the future has arrived

Its concept - which seems so obvious now that it has been announced and implemented - might at last be the new technology bridge between what my friend Derek Moore of Napa calls the 'dead-tree people' and the newest gizmos in electronic information technology.

And by charging $3 per issue - and no doubt hefty fees for advertising to a pretty upscale market - Branson may be able to overcome the problem of funding that is sinking newspapers and magazines quickly.

If you take away the printing bill for a magazine, you wipe out a major portion of the cost.

Maybe some of that money could go to writers, instead.

Maybe.

It's not surprising that this project comes from Branson and his company. Branson's company has an airline, makes cellphones and is going to be offering people rides in space. A electronic publication - available only on one tablet reader - might seem a gamble to most people. To Branson, it's just another day around the office of his company, Virgin.

Perhaps most important about this new magazine - and app - is that it gives me yet another reason to run out and get an IPad.

Merry Christmas, a little early, por favor.