Even as magazines clamor to take their print presence to Apple's iPad, Virgin wasted no time catching the attention of consumers with the launch of its iPad-only Project magazine.

The magazine, rolled out in November, released its second issue in January. It's priced at $2.99, undercutting significantly the per-issue price of some of the most popular titles downloaded on the device.

"One of (Virgin founder) Richard Branson's big things is that he likes to get in first and undermine the big boys," Project Deputy Editor Chris Bell told News & Tech. "We knew this was the way it was going. Paper magazines, if not in decline, have leveled out for the moment."

At its drawing board stage, Project - originally dubbed Project Maverick - was Virgin's brainchild for a new media venture. Among concepts tossed around was making it an in-flight magazine for Virgin Airlines, Bell said. What it became instead is a flashy mix of the latest in entertainment, culture, fashion, science and travel.

Project began gaining steam last summer, and Bell said by September there were enough major advertising partners - including Forbes and Sony - to make its November launch a reality.

Despite early interest, Bell said he's not expecting blind enthusiasm from advertisers.

"It is very difficult to sell a new thing without a print basis," he said. "Early advertisers were pretty brave - certainly having Branson behind it helped."

Listen to consumers

Bell said listening to media consumer suggestions and complaints was an integral part of creating the iPad-centric pub.

"Chief among them was that (iPad magazine subscriptions) were far too expensive," he said. "You can get an entire (print) subscription for $10, so people said, why the hell am I paying $5 for the iPad issue?"

That's one of the prime reasons Virgin settled on the $2.99 price point, Bell said. "The response has been amazing, actually."

And it didn't hurt that Virgin gave the magazine away for free over the Christmas holiday.

From Bell's perspective, the coolest thing about the magazine is that it has the look and feel of a website - content can be updated as necessary - but that it exploits the graphic and display potential of the iPad.

The app was created using WoodWing Software's Digital Magazine Tools app, with HTML5 also being an integral component.

"WoodWing is definitely the firm foundation we worked on," Bell said.

A number of custom-built innovative features have been added with DMT's iPad Reader App framework, including a comment forum, which readers can access from each article. By tapping the forum button, the page rotates vertically to reveal the forum. Readers can also access contextual Web resources from a sliding side-menu with each article.

HTML5 enabled features such as the one used in a Jaguar ad in the November issue, in which readers swipe back and forth with their fingers to watch a new Jag transform from blueprint to reality (see page 28).

The November issue's travel guide to Tokyo also employed HTML5 to enable swooping Google Earth videos of various locations.

"You have to keep evolving and impressing people," Bell said of Virgin's use of the technology to wow users. "You have to have bells and whistles if you want people to pay for it."

Managing content is a bit of a challenge, Bell admits, because of the magazine's format, including full-page video covers.

"There has to be video editing and there is also sound editing," Bell said.

Layered elements

One centralized server handles all of Project's content, including text, graphics, video, audio and other multimedia. Each element is layered in one at a time.

"It starts with raw copy and then it's edited and video, sound and other (elements) get added," Bell said. "It takes a lot of keeping tabs on and it can get tricky determining who has the right version, so we have a production editor keeping track."

The Project staff is surprisingly small for a venture of Branson's empire. In addition to a production director and Bell himself, Project's roster includes an editor, editor-in-chief, two art designers, a staff writer and three developers.

Bell uses freelance photo and video editors as needed.

A constantly evolving content lineup - and the absence of a print deadline - allows Project to maintain a loose production schedule.

"We know what features we'd like to land and details of who will be on the cover (ahead of time), but things change on the fly," Bell said.

The inaugural issue featured Jeff Bridges on the cover and a slew of audio and video components that begins with the cover and Bridges walking barefoot on a beach.

Among the most popular: a series of audio clips in which Bridges comments on the different roles he's played, from "The Big Lebowski" to "True Grit."

The second issue features survival guru Bear Grylls, opening with Grylls perched high atop a building in front of a nighttime New York skyline.

Other features in the January issue include an interactive guide to the "11 Most-Wanted Cars of 2011." Readers can tap through facts and photos of the most coveted machines on four wheels, including the Lexus LFA, Toyota FT-86, Subaru Impreza, Nissan Leaf and Aston Martin One-77.

The issue also contains an in-depth and interactive guide to London, featuring coverage of the hottest in art, music, restaurants, bars and shopping.

It also features a Photostory from a photographer that went into Burma to capture a look at life under military rule.

Integrated into the magazine is the Project Blog, which is also available online www.projectmag.com.

Bell said Virgin hopes to eventually take Project to other tablet devices, including those powered by Google's Android platform.

In the meantime, he said one of Project's goals is to transform how magazines are sold on the iPad. The recent drop in iPad magazine sales - Wired, for example, suffered a 75 percent drop in iPad subscriptions between its May launch and November - doesn't faze Virgin, Bell said.

"Our first issues sales were brilliant and we exceeded our target," he said. "iPad apps need to find their niche.

"This is the future, no doubt about it, and if it ebbs and flows before it levels out and establishes itself, that is to be expected."

New era?

Does Project represent a new era of iPad-only pubs? For months, consumers have been waiting for News Corp.'s The Daily, dubbed the industry's first iPad-only newspaper.

But the publication's launch, originally pegged for January, was pushed back again for an unspecified number of weeks as News Corp. and Apple reportedly hammer out subscription-model issues.

Though a number of media reports were quick to brand Project as an attempt to beat Rupert Murdoch to the punch, Bell said that's a non-story.

"No one knows what Rupert is going to do," Bell said. "The press saw it as a fight between the moguls, which is a nice story angle if you need to write a headline, but there is not really much in comparison.

"Rupert wants a paid daily news app, and that is very different than an effectively beautiful monthly magazine."

In fact, Bell said Virgin welcomes The Daily into the space if it gives iPad publications more visibility.