iMaverick is too long; NewsNow is for chicks

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And I'm sure it will also be so for iMaverick (@iMaverick) - the country's first-ever iPad-only daily newspaper to be launched by Daily Maverick founder Branko Brkic in a few weeks' time.

Initially Brkic had planned for it to go live in August but developing the app has taken longer than he thought so, in the meantime, he's been putting out a free daily pdf version that I've been spending quite a bit of time with lately.

An idea of what to expect

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While it's not fair to judge iMaverick on the pdf version, it does give us an idea of what we can expect. Once again, there is a general lack of gradation in layout as you scroll vertically down the "newspaper" but that doesn't bother me anymore as it's part of the oddball Maverick experience. And this is still just a pdf, so I'm sure it will change with the iPad app. I do hope we're going to get fab interactive features that only iPad apps can deliver.

It all looks good - lots of lovely pictures and at least one or two really meaty stories that you can't get on the Maverick website by top-notch writers such as Phillip de Wet and Carien du Plessis. Another addition to the offering (compared with the web version of the Daily Maverick) is daily digests of what's up in the world in the usual categories - "South Africa", "Africa", "World", "Business", "Life, etc" and "Sport" - plus shorter stories that carry that now-characteristic opinionated Maverick tone.

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My criticisms - and they are tentative as I'm sure many of these things will get ironed out when the iPad version gets going - is that I'd like to see more voices in the mix. The same personalities keep cropping up and that's an important consideration when there is a fair amount of editorialising going on.

Like to see more innovation

I'd also like to see more innovation in iMaverick's structure. At the moment the categories - "South Africa", "Africa", "World", etc - are very traditional and I'd like to see the Maverick crew turn this on its head - much as the innovative Portuguese newspaper, i, did (with categories such as "Opinion", "Radar", "Zoom" and "More": click here to find out more in an article at Editors' Weblog).

Finally, I do wonder about iMaverick being a bit of a lengthy read. Each edition is about a half-hour read - which is a big ask on a daily basis.

Would I give up reading other newspapers to read iMaverick on an iPad? Well, I don't really have the time to read a daily paper as it is.

And now that South Africa's last serious newspaper, Business Day, is on the rather fabulous iPad app, PressReader (for which you pay US$29 a month to get 1900 plus papers from around the world), there is something else competing for my attention on the iPad - never mind Business Day's own iPad app, which is free.

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Better suited to a weekly

Wouldn't iMaverick be better suited to a weekly publishing arrangement? Now, that's tricky, as the subscription deal (with which you get a free iPad for R87 a month) commits itself to a daily edition.

I would suggest that iMaverick should do less international news - on which it cannot compete with the big international publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian - and concentrate on delivering 10-12 excellent, meaty pieces about South Africa and our neighbours... Now that, I think, I would find half an hour on a daily basis for.

The other new kid on the block - Media24's NewsNow weekly magazine of aggregated news under the editorship of Waldimar Pelser (@Waldimar) - is another product that takes a bit of getting used to.

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The first edition was out last week and I noted that, like the Daily Maverick, it also lacks layout gradation, which is a bit more problematic in traditional print form. One does feel a bit at sea, scanning the pages without obvious entry points.

As a weekly edition, it delivers

However, as a weekly digest for busy people, I think it delivers.

Like iMaverick, it is also about a half-hour read and, if the first edition is anything to go by, I find it both diverting and useful.

Being a parent of a small child, I get my breaking news online and on the radio, as the TV is often monopolised by my daughter and I don't watch TV news with her around anyway, as news channels often show scenes of violence and bloodshed that would be disturbing to young children.

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So NewsNow does in fact fill in the gaps in my knowledge of what happened throughout the world in the week and I really liked the "Pick of the week" section, which has "the best of" cartoons, newspaper- and blogging-opinion pieces from around the world. Other nifty features included cool magazine covers from around the world (who knew The Rotarian could be so funky?), a very lekker graphics pages and an exceptionally useful "Book & films" page.

Fills a little gap

As someone who gave up women's magazines a few years back because they all began to seem so much of the same, NewsNow fills a little gap of reading pleasure in my life.

I can see myself spending a pleasantly idle but informative half-hour on a Friday or Saturday, catching up with the week's current affairs with NewsNow. Excellent international publications such as The Economist demand at least a couple of hours a week, which I don't have.

I do, however, think the R20 cover price is a bit steep for what NewsNow is. Fortunately, there'll be subscriptions deals at a discount for quite a while to get the product out there; at the moment it's going for R67 a month.

Maybe NewsNow is news for chicks - and busy moms - but that's fine by me. I like it a lot. Very nice, thank you.

For more:

• Bizcommunity: NewsNow misses real opportunity by Herman Manson, 5 Sept 2011
  
• MediaSlutZA: Review of NewsNow, 2 Sept 2011
  
• Bizcommunity: First Brkic's iMaverick, now Media24 to launch new news magazine by Gill Moodie, 14 June 2011
  
• Bizcommunity: Kindle loves M&G; iPad loves less by Gill Moodie, 15 Feb 2011