So, in other words, the June edition of US Wired, that's only been on sale for about a week and has generated $311,000.
Naturally there are some caveats – this a product for technically savvy users who are likely to be iPad early adopters, this is digital issue one – so people are experimenting by downloading it and Apple will be taking 30% of that revenue for themselves.
US Wired seems to 'sell' around 700,000 printed issues. From a low base of installed iPad's they've instantly generated 10% of that digitally (without having to worry about printing and distributon costs) and that's still by selling their iPad edition for the same price as their printed edition (I wonder what the cost per issue is digitally is vs a printed one).
Some may argue that the app is a mere glorified CD-Rom, but this is the first time that publishing seems to have a chance of making money on a digital edition. This is also a publisher that makes most of the same content available for free online, so this isn't a discounted version or some sort of exclusive iPad only content.
The big change is form factor. It's on a device that is great for reading this type of content and it's very easy to purchase as there's virtually no friction if your credit card details reside in the iTunes Store.
So, in summary, quality content, high quality brand, easy to find, easy to pay for and – probably most importantly – on a device that the content suits. Perhaps there is some money in this digital revolution after all!