Conde Nast rethinks its iPad strategy

A few weeks ago, after Conde Nast announced the company was slowing the process of bringing magazines to the iPad due to the ability to deliver the scale advertisers want (ie: iPad magazine sales suck), I wrote that sales of magazines on the iPad wouldn't get better until publishers woke up and realized that not many readers are going to pay $5 to read a single issue of a magazine on the iPad.

Many readers agreed with me and, as of today, it appears that Conde Nast does too.

The New York Post is reporting that Conde Nast is set to begin selling digital magazine subscriptions on the iPad as early as next week. The New Yorker will lead off the pack, followed by GQ, and then Wired, Golf Digest, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Self, and Allure.

Single issues will drop from their current iPad prices of between US$3.99 to $4.99 an issue down to a reasonable US$1.99 an issue. Better yet, yearly subscriptions will ring in at US$19.99. Know what that means? The New Yorker is gonna have me (and probably many others) as a subscriber next week. As for current print subscribers, they'll be able to access the iPad editions of the magazines for free.

Other magazine publishers: pay attention. This is how the magazine industry saves itself.