It’s not every day that I read about Martha Stewart on the social media news site Mashable. I’d heard great feedback about Martha’s very first digital issue and was very excited to see it come to life. After spending some time with my boyfriend’s iPad Sunday night, I must say, I’m a fan. Whether you happen to be a Martha fan or not, this digital issue is definitely worth a read for you crafty iPad owners out there.
Starting off this issue is a how-to guide, which, as an iPad newbie, I was very glad to have. Full feature stories scroll up and down, and the magazine scrolls horizontally, just like you’d flip pages in a real magazine. (Please excuse the black bar on the photos – iPad screen shots.)
The feature stories are amazing. I found myself spending a lot of time with each one, from viewing the videos to scrolling through all of the extra photos they had available. On an iPad, the photos seemed to come to life more, and I loved watching the videos, which ranged in length from 1-4 minutes.
The projects take on new life in the digital issue. There are more photos for each step, and at the end of each project is a source page of links which, if you’re connected to the Internet while viewing the magazine, take you right to the featured shop. So handy – how many times have you dog-eared a magazine to remember all the great stores an author mentions?
The recipe component to the digital issue is amazing. You can skip ahead to the actual directions, or see the magazine-ready feature as you go through each page. Of course, there’s an entire section dedicated to recipes at the end of the issue, and you can skip ahead to that if you’d like to look up something delicious you saw as you were flipping along. The before-and-after photos are great and give you a good idea of what your finished product should look like.
I was worried about the ads in this issue, thinking they might be over the top, but they were anything but. There weren’t too many and you can choose to check out its interactive components or not. Nothing forced here.
My favorite feature had to be the vintage photos of Martha. There was a gallery of images included in the story, showcasing Martha’s early modeling days. I also enjoyed a poll that’s included with real-time results. Wow.
The issue ends with a reader survey and all of the recipes and sources grouped together.
As I said earlier, this issue gets two thumbs up for me. I can’t wait to see more issues from the “Living” staff in the future. It’s exciting to see a tried-and-true medium evolve into a brand-new medium right before your very eyes. For more photos, check out this Flickr set.
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