Barbie Magazine SA international Media Pioneers Awards finalist

With over a million downloads in eight months, the app is customised on iPad and iPhone. The app has been highly praised by its readers, averaging a rating of 4. The only reason for 95% of the readers rating below 5, was that the magazine is not free.

Urs Honegger, CEO of Panorama Media, says, "The interactive app is the only Barbie app available internationally and even has a following across non-English speaking countries. We embarked on a serious digital publishing exploration and seven of our 16 titles went digital in 2012."

Bringing fun to life

Panorama Media created the app that interacts with its readers and brings interactive games to a magazine. The digital version, launched in September 2012, has all the rich content it needs to bring fun to life and that is the reason why it is the highest selling children's magazine on the app store internationally. Barbie is ranked 77th on the overall newsstand.

The ratio of the subscription is three times latest issue sale, the app contributes 60% of its sales from archive issues, ie the archive issue sales are 600% of the latest issue sale. This goes to show how much readers enjoy the app and the interactive experience.

The app was also a finalist in the Digital Magazine Awards 2012, the most coveted awards in the international digital magazine industry.

For the list of all the finalists, go to www.thespecialistmediashow.com.