Sporting News Today has expanded its digital distribution strategy with a new ad-supported application for Apple?s iPad.

The Sporting News Today application for iPad will feature 30-plus daily pages of sports news. It will run as a branded application within the Zinio Unity platform.

?We think the capabilities of the iPad create the optimal environment for a daily sports magazine,? said Jeff Price, president/CEO and publisher of Sporting News, New York. ?The design and navigation of the Sporting News Today app take full advantage of the iPad's multitouch display and in the weeks ahead we will be adding photo galleries, video and an interactive scoreboard to further enhance the experience. 

?This is the content and experience that our readers have been telling us they want and with the iPad, we're able to deliver it,? he said.

Mobile subscription
Founded in 1886, Sporting News is a multimedia company catering to avid sports fans.

By working with Zinio, Sporting News will be able to deliver its content to iPad users through a subscription that will cost less than a dime a day.
 
To make use of the high-quality visual appeal of the iPad, rotating image galleries will illustrate the biggest stories of the day. 

Video reports from Sporting News partner CineSport and ?ScoreTouch,? an interactive scoreboard with access to every game, score, stat and standing at the touch of a finger, will be available within a few weeks from launch.  

Advertising 
With the launch of the application, Sporting News will exercise its current strategy that offers advertisers in Sporting News Magazine the opportunity to advertise in Sporting News Today ? both in the application and across the other platforms on which the product is available.

The company plans to continue with this strategy until it hits 250,000 subscribers, which gives advertisers the opportunity to test the product and learn.  

A few recent magazine advertisers who are also in the most recent issue of Sporting News Today are Champs, NAPA AutoCare, Toyota and Bridgestone.

Sporting news is targeting avid sports fans, commuters, business travelers, college students, expatriates and others on the go who are looking for a daily, packaged sports news experience

?First, Sporting News is a content company, not a technology company, so partnering with Zinio and their Unity Platform offered us the best opportunity to optimize our content for tablets such as the iPad,? Mr. Price said.

?In addition, we're able to offer our readers a subscription on the iPad, which is available as an in-app purchase through Zinio, a feature that has been a challenge for publishers,? he said. 

Final take
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily
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