The idea of “minimum viable product” is now a well established construct in the Valley. It accelerated products to market and tends to focus developers on what matters most.

I’d like to posit a similar construct. “minimal acceptable download”. Zinio does this well. I get my fave magazines quickly and can easily read them. Apple Newsreader is the polar opposite. Magazines become bloated at 10x the size of those in Zinio and packed full of stuff they assume I want. As a result, speed of download is impractical and time to content is slow.

It’s time for publishers to start breaking free from Apple’s store and get back to basics. I’m missing pubs like Wired. Get back to the notion of a “minimal acceptable download” and you will win readers. At least that is my hope.