Must Read: Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8

Topic: Mobility

Can an iPad subscription magazine service succeed like Netflix?

Summary: Netflix is a very successful streaming movie subscription service and now Next Issue Media is attempting to bring a similar subscription based all-you-can-eat model to the iPad. Are there enough titles to get you to subscribe?

Matthew Miller

By for The Mobile Gadgeteer |

I read the news last night that Next Issue Media launched their magazine subscription service to iOS. People are referring to this new service, launched previously on Android tablets, as a Netflix for magazines. I personally would likely read a maximum of seven of the current titles, but even this low number looks to justify the monthly $10 to $14 fee.

I read magazines on my iPad through the Newstand utility and Zinio and have been moving from print subscriptions to Newstand subscriptions. It is more convenient for me to carry magazines on my iPad and also cuts down on paper needed by publishers. When more titles are added to the Next Issue Media service, such as Macworld, Mac Life, and Outdoor Magazine then I might just sign up. You can actually give it a try for free for 30 days and I just downloaded the app to my iPad.

The current available titles include:
  • Allure
  • All You
  • Better Homes and Gardens
  • Bon Appetit
  • Brides
  • Car and Driver
  • Coastal Living
  • Conde Nast Traveler
  • Cooking Light
  • Elle
  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Esquire
  • Essence
  • Fitness
  • Fortune
  • Glamour
  • Golf
  • Golf Digest
  • GQ
  • Health
  • InStyle
  • Money
  • Parents
  • People
  • People in Spanish
  • People StyleWatch
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Real Simple
  • Self
  • SI for Kids
  • Southern Living
  • Sports Illustrated
  • Sunset
  • The New Yorker
  • This Old House
  • Time
  • Vanity Fair
  • Vogue
  • Wired

Like Netflix, the great thing about such a subscription model is that you are likely to discover new magazines you enjoy, which then just increases the value of the service. After entering the full list of titles I can see a few more titles that interest me that I would never have paid for an individual subscription.

Related ZDNet coverage

Topics: Mobility, Apple, iPad

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

13 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Probably...but.

    That's one more lock-in from Apple. You subscribe to their magazine service, and you lose it when you change platforms. No reason not to have an iPhone, but I would be leary of signing up for any of their services that I would lose if I bought a tablet that wasn't an iPad or changed phones.
    bmonsterman
    Reply Vote

    • It was on Andriod first ... according to the article

      I've had this software on my Galaxy Tab since I bought it. I would imagine it's more like Zinio, where you can move titles between devices.
      roteague
      Reply Vote

      • My bad

        I missread the article. Didn't mean to stoke flame :)
        bmonsterman
        Reply Vote

        • Please

          Please don't anger the Android deity. Even simple oversights or honest mistakes are not tolerated!
          jamboy34
          Reply Vote

  • Can an iPad... No!

    I stopped reading at "iPad" because it became just another fanboy diatribe. Did the author mean "tablet"? Saying "iPad" in this context is like saying "Dell" when you actually mean any PC. iPad is not a synonym for tablet, despite what Apple's marketing folks might like to believe.

    Does putting the word "iPad" in a headline still drive more traffic to a website? It seems a lame way of boosting click-throughs.
    Tim Acheson
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Umm, not for me...

    I don't use an iPad. So no. I would never use any product where I am locked in to a brand. For this reason alone I won't use Apple products.
    heathman
    Reply 2 Votes

    • So you basically would never use, say, Polaroid

      I mean not now, when it makes no sense already, but like twenty-thirty years ago.
      DDERSSS
      Reply Vote

      • Alot of people passed up Polaroid for just that reason

        the cost of the film wasn't worth the instant lower quailty pictures in spit out.

        So, Yes - I would never use Polaroid.
        William Farrel
        Reply Vote

  • I prefer Zinio

    No, I don't see subscribing to this. I already have Zinio.
    roteague
    Reply 2 Votes

  • What?

    No Playboy? No PC World? No PC Magazine?
    Hallowed are the Ori
    Reply Vote

  • Interesting

    There has to be some gain for the magazines listed. Let me gather some information before I judge this.
    Jazzy Kat
    Reply Vote

  • For which century?

    This will only work if it succeeds in dragging the magazines, kicking and screaming, into the Age of Apps. If the product being delivered is basically a scanned version of a print magazine, with little use of hypertext or video, people won't be 'captured' by it and they'll tend to wander away quickly after trying it.

    Some of these magazines probably have enough money to do that, but a lot of them won't; the magazine business is not far behind the newspaper business in terms of swirling around the ol' porcelain bowl.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

  • New era for iPad magazines

    Elle for iPad
    nickp91
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close