magazines

Apple Is Planning to Launch a News Subscription Service – Bloomberg

Apple Inc. plans to integrate recently acquired magazine app Texture into Apple News and debut its own premium subscription offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a broader push by the iPhone maker to generate more revenue from online content and services.

The Cupertino, California company agreed last month to buy Texture, which lets users subscribe to more than 200 magazines for $9.99 a month. Apple cut about 20 Texture staff soon after, according to one of the people.

The world’s largest technology company is integrating Texture technology and the remaining employees into its Apple News team, which is building the premium service. An upgraded Apple News app with the subscription offering is expected to launch within the next year, and a slice of the subscription revenue will go to magazine publishers that are part of the program, the people said.

I’m a bit hesitant about this. Apple’s Newsstand was a resounding failure, and integrating magazines into the Apple News app might be problematic. (Though a separate Magazines app would work.)

There are two types of subscriptions Apple can offer. The first would be a basket of publications for a monthly fee, but with those publications’ articles available in the News app. This could include, for example, newspapers – like the New York Times and Washington Post – and magazines, who make their articles available on the web behind a paywall.

The second is a separate magazine-only service, like Texture. I subscribe to Readly, which gives me access to tons of magazines for a monthly price of £8. It’s practical, because I can leaf through a number of photography and computer magazines, publications that I would not buy on their own. (I did subscribe to one photo magazine, and, since it’s available via Readly, I will not be renewing it when it runs out in a couple of months.) I’m not sure how viable this is for the magazines, however; in my case, I wouldn’t have paid for two photo magazines, but I can read a dozen for about twice the price of the monthly cost of one magazine; plus the other magazines I read: news, music, literature, etc.

Of course, the problem with Apple doing this would be that it only works on Apple devices; nay, only on iOS devices. I can’t view Apple News on my Macs. If I want to see the news when I’m at my desk, I’m not going to pick up my iPhone. Apple really needs to change this; how hard can it be to port the Apple News app – which is really just an RSS aggregator at heart – to the web?

Source: Apple Is Planning to Launch a News Subscription Service – Bloomberg

About The Loop Magazine | The Loop

I am moving the magazine to a monthly publication that will contain double the amount of stories that the bi-weekly edition published–that’s 8-10 stories per month. I’m currently finishing up the latest issue and it should be published this week. This will be the start of a new chapter for The Loop Magazine, and I’m sure it will be a successful one.

I’ve contributed a number of articles to The Loop Magazine, and I’m proud to be a part of it. If you haven’t read The Loop Magazine, you should check it out; you’ll find lots of great articles.

via About The Loop Magazine.

How Newsstand failed The Magazine, and what Apple should do

When iOS 8 went into developer betas, and so many interesting features began to be discussed, as well as a more developer-friendly approach, I had hopes. Perhaps Apple would “solve” Newsstand, and rescue it from neglect. Maybe it would break us out of Newsstand jail and let publication apps coexist, even if we had to give up showing a changing cover as the app’s icon. (It seemed unlikely Jony Ive would allow this, but he’s a clever man, and I thought he might have a solution to meld static app icons with changing covers.)

But iOS 8 went into release with nary a change. The Newsstand abides, a wasteland for publications that only use it as an adjunct–and us. The failure to improve iTunes and the App Store for discovery also remains problematic. It’s really impossible for people to find a publication that matches their interest when all they find are top-ten lists and a field to search for something they already know they want.

Glenn Fleishman writes, for Macworld, about the history of The Magazine, the publication that he has been editing, and which is retiring on December 18. I contributed an article to issue #5, Tour de Front Row.

A few months ago, I wrote a Macworld article explaining why I’ve stopped reading magazines with Newsstand. The Magazine, and Jim Dalrymple’s The Loop Magazine, are the only two exceptions. And then there was one…

via How Newsstand failed The Magazine, and what Apple should do | Macworld.