Branson launches glossy iPad magazine

British tycoon Richard Branson launched a glossy magazine for the iPad on Tuesday, getting the jump on News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch in the race to develop publications for the hot Apple device.

Project, a monthly style and culture magazine developed by Mr Branson’s Virgin Group and the British publisher Seven Squared, will cost $2.99(£1.79) an issue and be sold through Apple’s online App Store.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and kicking at Virgin,” Mr Branson told reporters at a Manhattan hotel launch event for Project, whose first cover features actor Jeff Bridges, star of the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy.

“It’s a truly interactive digital magazine,” Mr Branson said, adding that “it’s going to make advertising a hundred times more efficient.”

“You can even play with the adverts,” he said.

Mr Branson’s unveiling of Project comes ahead of the expected launch in the next few weeks of News Corp.’s new digital newspaper for the iPad called The Daily.

Mr Branson dismissed suggestions he was engaged in a war with Mr Murdoch. “It’s not a battle,” he said. “It’s about giving the millions of iPad users around the world something truly innovative.

At the same time, the British entrepreneur added, “it’s all about choice, and a fair bit of competition doesn’t hurt.

“I have the feeling that on quality, we’ll be willing to be judged,” said Mr Branson, who launched a magazine called Student when he was a teenager and has since built an empire ranging from music to airlines to rocket ships.

Project editor-in-chief Anthony Noguera, a former editor of Arena, described the new digital publication as “an agenda-setting magazine.”