Hearst Magazines Join Apple's 'In App Subscription' Program
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hearst Corporation has agreed to Apple's terms for in app subscriptions, making plans to begin selling subscriptions to several of its magazine titles beginning with their July issues.
Starting with their July issues, iPad apps for Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine, will be available through a service from Apple that allows customers to sign up for subscriptions inside the apps and get billed automatically. Subscriptions to all three publications will be sold for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year.
Only a few publications have begun using Apple's iTunes subscription service, launched in February. Hearst is the first major magazine publisher to commit to selling subscriptions to multiple titles through it.
The development marks another significant victory for Apple in its push to bring magazine content to the iPad. Just days ago, it was revealed that Apple and Time Inc. have struck a deal to allow subscribers to the print editions of Sports Illustrated, Time, and Fortune to access the digital editions of those titles on the iPad free of charge. Time has yet to commit, however, to offering standalone iPad subscriptions for those titles.
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It's still a tough sale when you can get a year's subscription to the print edition for $6 to $10, so I'm not interested in paying $19.95 for a year's subscription that eliminates the paper and physical distribution costs. Until the annual iTunes subscription is in the same range as the discounted print subscriptions, the market is going to be limited here.
Absolutely right. And what I hate to see is these companies come out in six months and say the iPad model does not work. There will be low demand because people aren't willing to pay $19.99 a month for something they can get for $10 a month and the consumer knows the publisher is able to produce it a lower rates.
Here's my free marketing advice to these idiots. We know your money is made based on selling reader demographics. Offer the subscriber something (longer subscription, exclusive content) in exchange for them agreeing to provide demographic information.
Who buys magazines anymore when the news/info they give is sloppy, old, and an excuse to have ads on every other page? $5 a pop or $1 a go, it's intrinsically worthless. They need to try harder with what they provide to set them apart from flyers delivered for free in my mailbox.
Charles Foster Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.
News Corp has very, very deep pockets. If they have the guts to take the long view and are willing to take the short term loss until they "get it right", they could be sitting very pretty as the cost of tablets goes down.
Think of it from their perspective. Print edition in the US alone is available to 300 million people. Then I'm sure many are international. This iPad edition is only available to.. what, 15 million? So there isn't the same incentive there, and the higher prices come from needing to recoup the cost of putting it in digital format. As the market grows and as the learning curve lessens the prices will start to lower
It's not just the iPad, there are other tablets out there. And the magazine is already in digital format as part of the printing process.
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