Staff-written magazine archives can be repackaged and re-sold as "collections"

A new revenue opportunity may be open to magazines which can repackage their archival material into iPad-only collections, according to a story about The New Yorker, published by Reuters. At the Ballpark, a collection of staff-written baseball writing from 1929 to 2011, features John Updike, David Grann and the inimitable Roger Angell. The revenue came from sponsorship by United Airlines. There

Amazon launches Kindle Fire tablet that will have Apple looking over its shoulder

Magazine people seem to divide into two, neat camps: those who look at tablets as the devil's work; and those who think they will be the salvation of their publications (and a great way to serve readers, to boot).
We think both camps will be interested, for their own reasons, in the announcement today of the Kindle Fire, Amazon's tablet that may give Apple a run for its iPad. It was reported in a

More magazine apps not necessarily better

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale for publishers who are keen on app delivery of their magazines' content to them new-fangled tablets. Research by GfK MRI of 3,000 adult tablet owners found that the more apps downloaded, the less likely they are to be used. 95% of consumers who downloaded fewer than 10 apps used them regularly; only 16% of users with 20 or more apps do so. 66% of the apps

Adobe & CDS Global deal means print subscribers can get tablet content seamlessly

CDS Global has partnered with Adobe Systems Incorporated to develop technology that will allow "device agnostic" merchandising of digital content for print magazine subscribers. According to a story in Audience Development, the partnership means CDS (which operates the largest magazine fulfillment company in Canada) can enable print subscribers to access tablet content seamlessly from

Time Inc. and Apple make a deal: print subscribers get iPad editions free

Time Inc. and Apple Inc. have apparently come to an arrangement about serving its existing subscribers on the iPad. It was reported today from multiple sources that this breaks an impasse between the two companies that may augur well for all magazines being delivered to subscribers on tablets. (It doesn't yet solve the problem of selling new subscriptions for iPads and retaining access to

Tablets change the way people read and perceive magazines, research shows

According to research conducted by Bonnier Publishing anad CP+B Group, an advertising agency, it is no longer just rival publications that will lure away a magazine's readers but publishers must now consider that they are competing for attention with apps and tablet features. This, from a story on Audience Development. It also found that on a tablet, readers sometimes can't distinguish between

Wall Street Journal tops 200,000 tablet subscriptions for the paper, worth $41.5 million

As but one indicator of the growth of digital uptake by the public, it has been reported by MediaDailyNews that The Wall Street Journal has sold 200,000 digital subscriptions for tablet devices. The subs, 75% of which were sold in the last year, seem to have benefited from the launch of Apple's iPad.WSJ's audience is quite specialized and is in particularly high demand. It is one of the few

We can live with the new Apple subscription model, says Transcon CEO

Apparently, a 30% subscription commission taken by iTunes, while steep, is something that the CEO of Transcontinental Inc., Francois Olivier says his company can live with, according to what he told the Montreal Gazette. Transcontinental Media publishes the largest number of consumer magazines in Canada. The new sub model will help newspapers and magazines  make money, Olivier says. Apple this

Quote, unquote: Building a subscriber-friendly device-agnostic front end

We're hedging our bets--Apple right now has the largest market share in tablet usage. Six months from now, Android and the whole Google platform may grow or it may not, or Apple and Google may split the market up. What we want to do--and it's been hard, especially with Apple since they haven't been too transparent--is make this a front-end experience for the subscriber that's device-agnostic

Publish once, read anywhere;Condé Nast's Rick Levine on the company's strategy

Magazines Canada has posted a video of the recent presentation in Toronto by Richard Levine VP Editorial Operations, Condé Nast. Click on this link

Virtual newsstand lets you swipe a magazine off a coffee table

I will concede that the intention is good (ease for the customer), but there is something weird and off-putting about this concept for a new form of virtual newsstand -- a table top from which you can drag participating titles onto the e-reader of your choice. The video is from eMedia Vitals and the demonstration was at the SXSW Music and Media Conference.