Wenner: Publishers’ rush to iPad is ‘sheer insanity and insecurity and fear’

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Jann Wenner, the publisher of Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men’s Journal, tells Nat Ives that the magazine industry shouldn’t rush to the iPad, and that users won’t shift away from print for decades. Magazine publishers are “crazy” to encourage a shift to tablets, Wenner says: “They’re going to get less money for it from advertisers. Right now it costs a fortune to convert your magazine, to program it, to get all the things you have to do on there. And they’re not selling. You know, 5,000 copies there, 3,000 copies here, it’s not worth it. …To rush to throw away your magazine business and move it on the iPad is just sheer insanity and insecurity and fear.” More of his thoughts on print vs. digital in the full interview.