Digital magazines can either be a joy to read or a burden.
It all depends on the design of the content and the underlying technology.
In this article, we showcase 11 high-quality digital magazine examples—each with something interesting to teach us about how to design and format content for digital screens.
We don’t recommend creating a digital magazine by embedding a PDF into your website because PDF files are very hard to read online using any device. Readers have to pinch and zoom their way around the page to read columns and sections.
Instead, we’ve hand-picked digital magazine examples that use modern, mobile-optimized technology—mostly using our web-based reader, but also within native apps and Apple News+—so you can see examples that offer a great reading experience.
And at the end, we offer key takeaways from the examples to serve as a checklist when creating your own digital magazine.
1. TIME for Health
We kick things off with some bold and simple full-screen digital covers from TIME for Health. One of the most popular magazines in the world, TIME offers free digital health and wellness magazines. There are a variety of special issues that each cover a specific topic like sleep, diet, habit-building, and anxiety. Not only are these issues examples of high-quality digital magazines, but they also serve as an example of giving away free content to grow brand awareness and subscriptions for premium content.
2. Outdoor Photographer
In this example, Outdoor Photographer is shown inside Apple News+, a monthly subscription to more than 300 magazines and newspapers. As you can see, content is shown in a single column so it’s easy to read on any device. At eMagazines, we offer support to Apple News+ publishers, handling content design and delivery on your behalf.
3. Esquire
In this example, we see Esquire’s branding evident in the font style and color, while the background is kept clean and simple. At any time, readers can click on the magazine cover to be taken to a Table of Contents widget that makes it easy to navigate through the different articles.
4. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly offers the best entertainment industry content across movies, TV, books, events, and celebrity news. In this example, we can see what ads look like in digital magazine format. Ads are shown full screen to give them the attention they deserve without detracting from your main content. Readers can easily swipe past ads to keep reading.
5. Good Housekeeping UK
Good Housekeeping UK offers another example of a digital magazine. Here you can see the cover feature shown in a mobile device. The magazine’s branding is evident in the font style and color, but the white background and single-column format remain. Why? This design is the easiest to read on laptops, phones, and tablets. The content will automatically fill the screen, no pinching or zooming required.
6. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated offers a great example of digital magazine content inside its native mobile app. Readers can view back issues and download content to their devices for offline reading.
Keep in mind that most publishers don’t need a branded mobile app, and you should only create one if you have a solid plan for content and profitability. Most publishers are better off releasing digital magazine content via a web-based platform that doesn’t require passwords or downloads.
7. Better Homes & Gardens
Better Homes & Gardens offers a great example of a digital magazine that includes audio for every article. With 73% of Americans over the age of 12 listening to audio content at least monthly, it’s a good idea to offer audio versions for all of your content. If you use digital magazine software with AI audio generation, all you need to do is upload the print file of your magazine and choose an on-brand real human voice. The software will then reflow your file into a digital magazine and add the audio file at the top of every article. You can then test each audio button before publishing the magazine and distributing it to your digital subscribers.
8. SLAM
In this example, we see how basketball magazine SLAM has made their extensive library of back issues available to their subscribers. Readers can search by year, player, team, or topic to find all of the issues with relevant content. It’s not only a fun form of nostalgia, it’s also a lucrative way to capture mega fans of certain players or eras.
You can also offer access to all of the back issues of your magazine. Either offer this for free as an incentive to drive subscriptions for new content, charge per issue, or charge a one-time fee for access to the entire archive. The right strategy for you really depends on your target audience and other content offerings.
9. LOCAL Life
Serving Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, South Carolina, LOCAL Life is the regional go-to for restaurants, events, culture, and business news. As you can see, the magazine looks amazing when viewed in a tablet. As with our other best-practice examples, the single-column content and white background really allow the content to shine. Like Better Homes & Gardens, LOCAL Life makes use of realistic AI audio for easy audio generation.
10. People
People is one of eMagazines’ most recognizable digital editions, and it’s a great example of just how far reflow can go. The print layout is packed with multiple columns and colorful backgrounds, but the digital version strips that down to a single, easy-to-scroll column, proof that mobile optimization doesn’t mean giving up on brand personality. Readers still get People’s signature photography, “exclusive” cover treatments, and on-brand fonts, just presented in a format built for phones and tablets rather than the newsstand.
11. Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan rounds out our list as an example of a large, fast-moving lifestyle brand that’s fully embraced digital-first publishing. Alongside TIME, People, and Rolling Stone, Cosmo runs its digital edition on eMagazines’ single-column, mobile-optimized reader, letting its bold covers and image-heavy features translate cleanly to any screen size without the pinch-and-zoom problems of an embedded PDF. As you can see in this example, the layout for a tablet view is different than mobile, where less space needs to reserve enough focus for actual text.
Key takeaways from these digital magazine examples
It’s time to sum up all of the lessons learned! Here are some essential key takeaways when developing your own digital magazine:
- Responsive design: Truly responsive design looks great on computers, phones, and tablets without forcing the reader to pinch and zoom, and it adapts, not just shrinks, adjusting layout and spacing so text stays the focus on smaller screens.
- Single-column content: Adopt a single-column layout for easy readability on any device.
- White backgrounds: Offer a clean and easily readable design.
- On-brand fonts: Maintain consistent branding through font style and color.
- Navigable table of contents: Create a navigable Table of Contents widget so readers have an easy way to navigate through different articles.
- Web-based magazine software: Unless you have a good reason to create a mobile app, opt for a web-based digital magazine for a great reading experience.
- Article audio: 73% of Americans listen to audio content monthly. Easily add audio to every article by using digital magazine software with AI audio generation.
- Full-width ads and images: In digital format, images and ads should be displayed full-width for great visibility, no matter how large or small they appear in your print magazine.
- Access to back issues: One of the best parts of the digital format is that readers can easily access your back issues. Make them available to subscribers for free or for an additional cost.
All of the above examples were created with eMagazines. Want to create your own mobile-optimized digital magazine without creating a mobile app?
Learn more about our mobile-optimized reader and get in touch with us to learn more.
Frequently asked questions about digital magazines
What’s the difference between a digital magazine and a PDF flipbook?
A PDF flipbook simply embeds your print file in a viewer, forcing readers to pinch and zoom through multi-column layouts. A true digital magazine reflows that same content into single-column, mobile-optimized articles, so text, images, and branding scale cleanly to any screen without the reader doing extra work.
Which of these examples should I model my own digital magazine after?
Start with the publication closest to your content type: lifestyle titles like Better Homes & Gardens or LOCAL Life for audio and regional appeal, entertainment brands like Entertainment Weekly or People for ad handling and photography-heavy layouts, and niche titles like SLAM for back-issue archives that reward loyal, topic-driven readers.
Is it worth adding audio to every article, or just select ones?
Adding audio across your full catalog, not just flagship pieces, is the stronger long-term play. Selective rollouts create inconsistent reader expectations and complicate production workflows. Publishers like Better Homes & Gardens and LOCAL Life apply AI-generated audio uniformly, which improves accessibility, keeps branding consistent, and simplifies testing before every issue goes live.
How much of a back-issue archive should I make available to subscribers?
There’s no universal number. It depends on your audience and goals. Some publishers offer a handful of free issues to drive new subscriptions, others charge per issue, and titles like SLAM unlock full searchable archives as a retention perk. Test a few models before committing to one long-term strategy.
