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Time Inc. relents on digital magazine prices

by Dave Caolo Aug 20th 2010 at 1:00PM

For the past few months, Time Inc. has been at odds with Apple over magazine subscription models in the App Store. The publishing giant took a big step forward this week in announcing that People Magazine for the iPad will now be free for those who subscribe to the paper version, though that doesn't seem to address the company's initial complaint.

Time's original intention was to have users download an app from the store and then pay them directly for future issues. Apple refused, forcing Time to sell single copies of the magazine. That's still the case for most customers, but subscribers can now consider a digital copy a part of their subscription.

People is the first title to adopt this model, and its expected that other properties, like Fortune, will soon follow suit. In the end, subscribers are happy -- but the publishers still can't sell subscriptions through their apps.

[via Apple 2.0]




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For the past few months, Time Inc. has been at odds with Apple over magazine subscription models in the App Store. The publishing giant...
 

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Ken Molti

Times have changed. I remember when Time Inc. was a powerhouse. An innovation giant. They dominated the best printing press hours and delivery routes for their paper magainzes. Every PR agency in the world wanted to talk to Time Inc. And Apple would come in and try to sell them products. Usually Macs. The Time execs would torture the Apple guys.

Now the tables have turned. The once great Time Inc. is begging Apple for a digital subscription model. Time Inc. wasted years talking about "new media" while Apple worked hard, innovated, and became the new media. Now Time is on even ground with thousands of other web publishers.

September 09 2010 at 11:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nekno

Time Inc. relents? What are you talking about?

Time wanted to give digital iPad issues to print subscribers for free *from the beginning*.

It is Apple Inc. who has relented.

Feels a tad like an editorial bias towards Apple, here.

August 23 2010 at 3:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeremy

It seems to me that they would be welcome to sell subscriptions through the app, but the problem is that they don't want to give Apple a cut.

August 21 2010 at 10:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jeremy's comment
mabhatter

more importantly, Apple wants their store to be like a "bookstore" where you point your iPad at the shelf and then check out with Apple's normal method. The magazine companies want you to give your info DIRECTLY to them, for a HIGHER cost than walking to a newsstand. It is all about directing the ad flow. I would expect that digital versions of print magazines will start to have custom ad pages based on your demographics. Publishers can't do that at a newsstand, it's something they haven't had before, yet they want to charge more for it. The 30% Apple charges is about right considering that's what newsstand markup would be, and still less than the direct subscription discounts they give.

Apple wants iPad "just like a book" and the publishers want separate apps with lots of personal info... Apple doesn't want publishers spying on their customers about what pages you read and such... because that is what publishers are really after.

August 22 2010 at 4:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frank.lowney

This is still a backward approach to 21st Century magazine subscription. The app should be free but it should be possible to purchase single issues or subscriptions of variable length with per issue costs on a sliding scale. Let those who get the dead tree option have a subscription to the digital version of equal duration, at least for a while. The long term objective should be to ween everyone off of paper mags.

August 20 2010 at 4:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LetDown

Getting a free digital copy with a print version is stupid. Who wants print versions??? EVER??!

DUMB.

How bout you get the digital version for free? then offer a print version for $$ shipped to your home if you want it.

PRINT is a waste of space, resources and (delivery) time. End of Story.




August 20 2010 at 4:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
woody

I thought the problem was that Time wanted to sell individual copies thru in-app purchases and not give Apple a cut. Time doesn't want to give Apple 30% per issue, and Apple doesn't want Time (or anyone else best I can tell) bypassing Apple via in-app purchases.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think it's that Apple doesn't want Time to sell individual issues through a free app - it's just that they want their cut.

The newest solution - get free digital issue if you subscribe to the print version - doesn't really interest me much as a long term model. I would prefer to get digital only (I like to think of myself as at least semi-green).

August 20 2010 at 3:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Eggleston

I was just reading MacWorld, and they are saying that you can do in-App purchasing, and the printed subscribers can get the digital content for free. Is MacWorld wrong?

(Link: http://www.macworld.com/article/153550/2010/08/people_ipad.html)

August 20 2010 at 2:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jd77xx

Why not just sell an app for the cost of a year? Then download issues each month? One issue $4.99; one app that buys 12 for $xx.xx. This why they are both happy, and make money. Of course the free model, is the more customer friendly option, so they must have some smarts.

August 20 2010 at 1:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Waggoner

What about Zinio? You can buy subscriptions through that app ...

August 20 2010 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maurice Turner

Would it be that difficult or against Apple policy to have the app be free and then let users manage their subscription from within the app using an embedded browser view? I guess it's the payment transaction that occurs via iTunes that can't happen using that method.
How is a magazine subscription different from Apple's season pass for tv shows? I dont see it.

August 20 2010 at 1:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Maurice Turner's comment
mturro

Letting users manage their subscription from within the app using an embedded browser view is exactly how Netflix and countless other apps actually work - so if Apple has a problem with that model for magazines (which I don't think they do) then they are perpetrating a massive and unfair double standard.

The season pass model is also currently being used by magazines as well. The Nation's app (done by pixelmags) lets you buy up to a year's worth of magazines in one shot through the iTunes store... just like season pass.

August 20 2010 at 1:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maurice Turner

Thanks for the insight Mike. Given that info I can't figure out what the dealbreaking issue could be.
For now all I want to do is to be able to transfer my current paper subscriptions to Zinio. But that decision is on a per-magazine basis and at the whim of the publisher.

August 20 2010 at 2:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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