OPad: Oprah Winfrey Comes to the iPad

How much does Oprah Winfrey love the iPad? So much that she's bringing her namesake magazine to the iPad later this year, but it will have a unique twist: The iPad app will make e-books available for purchase, and then the e-books can be read within the application itself.

The innovative idea is an extension of one of Oprah's signature features on her television show. She's known for recommending books through Oprah's Book Club, with her endorsements leading titles to become runaway best-sellers.

The timing of the O iPad edition couldn't be better, as Oprah Winfrey is poised to launch her own TV network in January, in partnership with Discovery Communications.

O magazine's iPad edition will go beyond her mobile app and follow the format of the magazine "but include visual tags that let users know they can see a video message from Ms. Winfrey or interact in some other way," according to Ad Age. In a boon for her massive audience, readers will also be able to comment on articles.

Hearst Magazines, the publishing giant behind the O app, has been an early leader in iPad editions of magazines. It already publishes Esquire and Popular Mechanics for the iPad and will be releasing iPad editions of Cosmopolitan, Food Network Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Redbook, in addition to O, The Oprah Magazine.

Hearst also will create applications that "extend the magazines' brands" but aren't necessarily simple versions of the printed issues. Some, for example, may be "standalone experience" applications using the magazine's name, such as "House Beautiful Favorite Colors," a magazine-branded paint color encyclopedia. Hearst plans to sell some of the applications and give others away free to promote the magazine brands.

Get ready for a whole new world of magazine publishing -- one which combines traditional print editions with iPhone and iPad apps that extend the brands electronically.