The Knot has extended its magazine to the iPad, offering brides-to-be additional content for planning their wedding such as videos, social media and chat.

The publication is looking to enhance the social dimensions of the magazine via the iPad application. The application is available in Apple?s App Store for $4.99 ? half the newsstand price.

?The overall strategy was to create compelling content with immersive interaction and social context,? said David Liu, cofounder/CEO of The Knot Inc., New York. ?Sharing goes beyond just sending a thumbnail of an article.

?We've also built community into the very core of our magazine,? he said. ?Readers can comment on any article.

?This allows users to have meaningful engagement with the content and with other readers.?

The Knot Inc. is devoted to weddings and pregnancy and provides women with information, products and advice.

Tie the knot
The iPad application features an embedded community where readers can comment on articles, take polls, add content and chat with others.

There is also an enhanced digital scrapbook where users can search, sort and clip more than 700 articles, pages and images and have it automatically organized by category.

Brides that are looking for specific wedding dresses or rings can filter their search based on designer, price and style.

The application features more than 20 videos where users can learn how to recreate hairstyles and beauty looks, as well as a step-by-step guide on do it yourself invitations.

?Reading a magazine is a tactile, immersive, cultural experience,? Mr. Liu said. ?The smell, the vivid photos, the texture, and the curated content all create an experience that is very difficult to replicate digitally.

?The iPad is the first platform with the ability to create a compelling digital magazine experience,? he said. ?Taking what the iPad is capable of and combining it with the vivid photos, video, creative content of The Knot, we were able to completely rethink what a magazine can and should be.

?We are looking to extend to other platforms ? our in-house technology platform will allow us to extend to other platforms in the future. However, iPad is the first platform with the ability to create a compelling digital magazine experience.?

Magazine features
Users can read the magazine in the portrait and landscape views and access the magazine offline.
The company is also looking to extend to the Android platform.

?There are no advertisements in the first issue of ?The Knot Weddings Magazine for the iPad,? Mr. Liu said. ?To meet Audit Bureau of Circulation guidelines, current digital magazines have page after page of replica print ads.

?This is not an ideal experience for either the user or the advertiser,? he said. ?We've decided to forgo revenue in the short-term, to ensure a blissful user experience.

?The iPad provides a unique platform for creating visually stunning, highly interactive, and entertaining ads ? we are working on compelling advertising opportunities for our next issue.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York