Apple's Newsstand generates big profits for publisher Future

Magazine publishing company Future has had some closures lately, as its traditional magazine business isn't doing so well. But it turns out the iPad publishing business is rocketing right up: The company reports that Apple's Newsstand app has earned it over $8 million in the last year since the service began in October of 2011. As of last March, the company had over 12 million of the "container" app downloads (which are the free trial apps you download before actually purchasing magazine issues), and had seen over a half million sales. At this point, those numbers are even higher, and with more and more iPads out there in the wild, they're likely still growing.

Future's planning a lot more with this market as well, working on a brand new platform for putting these digital magazines together, announcing plans for new digital editions around the world, and new and better ways to monetize all of this digital content that it's creating. Hopefully Future can find a way for digital sales to help shore up its recent losses in print sales, and keep some of these much-beloved tech publications running.