(Image courtesy of smashinghare.com)
Slowly but surely, more and more magazines and other periodicals are starting to roll out onto the iPad. This week's People app is now free to subscribers. It's being expected that Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune will soon follow suit.
The release of the app could mean the beginning of the end in what has been about a four-and-a-half-month roadblock that held up a lot of app aspirations for magazine publishers.
If you'll recall, the format for the iPad versions of People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune have all cost the same as that which you'll find on the newsstand. This was even if you were already getting the paper version through the mail.
Well now with this week's People iPad app, the digital version will be free to People magazine subscribers. The rest of Time Inc.'s periodical lineup are expected to follow suit right shortly, with the same pricing structure.
Erring on the side of caution though, Dawn Bridges, a Time Inc. spokesperson had this to say: "We are looking at various subscription opportunities for all of our titles."
But of course, since Apple let it fly for one title, you could probably expect the domino effect to occur soon for other magazines.
Just the same though, the magazine publishers still can't sell subscriptions through the App Store, which is their main goal.
via Fortune
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Loup407
August 19, 2010 at 9:28pm
as soon as I can. Its disappointing that Apple is taking the position of selling on a per issue basis. I'd love to NOT have stacks of old magazines around the house (I subscribe to 30+ magazines); but will NOT pay newsstand prices to do so.
thehive
August 20, 2010 at 10:40am
I want to try to understand Apple's logic behind not allowing subscription sales via the app store, but I just can't. I hear their argument, but still don't fully see how allowing users to access their subscription content via the iPad wouldn't do anything but start more of a fire behind overall iPad sales/app store interaction.
I would absolutely convert all of my hard copy magazines to iPad apps in a second if I could.
