We are excited to announce that the Good News magazine and several of our booklets are now available for download within the Apple iBookstore. These electronic publications can be easily downloaded by the estimated three-million-plus iPad owners by using the free iBooks app (application). Even owners of the newer versions of the iPhone (4) can down the available publications via the iBooks app.

The iPad was released in April 2010, and since that time we have been investigating various methods of how to make the Church’s literature easily accessible on this popular device. In just the past few weeks we have been able find and develop solutions that now make it possible for an iPad owner to easily search for our publications.

An iPad user may search for an interested topic within the iBookstore—for example “Ten Commandments,” “Holy Day” or “Sabbath”—and quickly be directed to one of our free publications. The iPad user may then download the publication to their library for later reading. After reading, they can rate or comment on the publication and see other publications by the United Church of God. At this time, we have the September/October 2010 Good News and eleven of our booklets available in the iBookstore. We will have more of our publications available over the next few weeks and months.

The Good News magazine and Digital Publishing

Many magazine publishers are beginning to offer their magazines in a digital format for the iPad. This new format allows content to be immersive and interactive. An example would be the digital format of the WIRED magazine that allows readers to watch videos, rotate images or listen to audio, all within the digital magazine. Our media team has started to look into how we can begin to offer the Good News magazine in a digital format.

We are starting out by offering a basic version of our magazines in a digital format that allows readers to easily page through the magazine. We are using the free MagCloud app (available for download via the Apple app store) to distribute The Good News and Vertical Thought magazines in a digital format. The magazines are available in the “Religion” and “Teen” section of the MagCloud app. Over the next few months we will be looking into developing our own app for the iPad that will allow readers to download the latest Good News in a digital format that could include embedded video, audio and additional photos that will make the GN magazine more interactive.

Our media team is really excited about offering our publications on the latest Internet enabled devices. We will continue to seek out ways and fine tune our efforts to be sure we are about our Father’s business of preaching the gospel message using the technology that is available. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to take this message of hope to the entire world.