Can Tina Brown successfully reinvent Newsweek?

Money quote from NY Times: " ... there is the much larger question of whether a weekly magazine is still a viable format for delivering the news. Publishing veterans are not focused on whether Ms. Brown can sustain Newsweek as readers have come to know it during the last 78 years. What she needs to do, they say, is create a whole new magazine from scratch. 'Whether it can be saved is irrelevant,' said Ron Galotti, the former Vanity Fair publisher, who worked with Ms. Brown at Conde Nast and left the company with her to help start Talk. 'What is to be created is the task.'"

Apple’s Message to Publishers: Quality

Interesting "take" on Apple's new subscription model. Liam Cassidy via NYTimes: "Much publishing today is less concerned with quality than it is with quantity. The more copies there are of a magazine in circulation — or clicks on a web page — the more eyeballs see accompanying ads. In a world where, more than ever before, readers have more choice of content, but less time to engage with it, for many publishers, the key to generating appreciable revenue lies not in value, but in volume. ... Online publishing’s focus on advertising, sponsorship and syndication is problematic, for viewers and for Apple as a company that wants to provide worthwhile content for users of its platforms. Great quality content, in this model, is of little use to publishers, despite the fact that it happens to be precisely the thing readers actually want. Apple, I think, has noticed this problem, and is now taking positive steps to solve it. Apple wants to ensure that publishing on the iPad is never anything less than top quality, where the paramount priorities of publishers lie always in ensuring the quality of their content."

Pressure mounts over Apple's 30% subscription charge

BBC: "Pressure is mounting on Apple over subscription charges it plans to levy on some mobile content. The company wants a 30% cut of payments for newspapers and other publications downloaded to its devices. Anti-trust regulators in the US and Europe are reportedly poised to investigate the new pricing model. ... "

Apple Subscription Service Draws Antitrust Scrutiny

We all saw this coming, right? NYTimes: "Apple’s new subscription service for iPad and iPhone applications, which has drawn complaints from some publishers, has also drawn the attention of federal antitrust regulators, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. ... "

Conde Nast Newsstand Tries Convergence of Technologies

NYTimes: "LONDON — A newsstand set to open here next week will sell more than a dozen international editions of Vogue magazine, in languages including English, Russian and Chinese. More than 100 other titles from around the world will line the shelves, with little flags indicating their country of origin. Visitors will be able to browse through digital versions of these and other publications on iPads tethered to sleek plastic tables. ... "

Time Inc. Strikes Blows for Publishers in Standoff with Apple

Jeff Bercovici - Mixed Media - Forbes:

For Time Inc., the world’s biggest magazine company, the quickest way to get it titles onto iPad screens may be getting them onto other tablets first.

While other publishers wrangle with Apple over the ins and outs of subscription sales in the iTunes store — How big a cut does Apple get to keep? Who gets control of the consumer’s information? Should the customer get to choose? — Time Inc. is moving ahead diagonally, making deals with the makers of other devices in hopes of gaining leverage in its negotiations with Apple.

Today, Sports Illustrated introduced an “All Access” subscription plan that will allow readers to pay one price to read the magazine in print, online, on Samsung Galaxy tablets and on Android phones. Although newspapers including The Wall Street Journal already offer such an option, SI is the first magazine to do so, according to managing editor Terry McDonell. The news comes just in time for the magazine’s swimsuit issue, its biggest annual seller. ...

Apple, Google and the Publishers: Here’s How to Make Subscriptions Work

John Squires | AllThingsD: "In recent weeks, we’ve heard growing concern from magazine and newspaper publishers regarding the challenge of providing content for mobile media while preserving their print franchises. The concern is nothing new, but it’s apparent that content providers are at risk of losing track of their customers like toddlers in a shopping mall. ... "

Sports Illustrated Magazine to Offer Subscriptions for Android Devices

Digits - WSJ: "Sports Illustrated magazine on Friday afternoon will start offering subscriptions to digital editions on Android smart phones and tablets, according to a person familiar with the matter. ... "

Digital Magazines Hindered by Long Download Times

NYTimes: "This morning I decide to try a little experiment: I opened up my iPad, clicked on the little Wired icon and purchased the magazine’s latest digital issue. After I agreed to fork over $4, it began downloading. For the next phase of the experiment, I grabbed my car keys, left my apartment and drove about 12 blocks to a local magazine store in Brooklyn, where I also purchased the latest issue of Wired magazine, this time in print. ... "

On eve of 'The Daily' launch, rival iPad apps offer previews

AppleInsider:

Ahead of News Corp's unveiling of The Daily digital newspaper on Wednesday, developers showed off competing iPad apps, including a social news app from The New York Times and a digital book platform from a former Apple designer. ...

News Corp's iPad publication could also be the first to implement an iTunes subscription feature that Apple has reportedly been working on. Publishers have pressed Apple for an iPad subscription agreement that would automatically send content to paying customers.

Competitors, however, haven't been idly watching The Daily's development process. The New York Times, in collaboration with Betaworks, is working on News.me, a social news app that will aggregate article links from Twitter streams and link sharing site bit.ly, TechCrunch reports. The approach is worlds apart from News Corp's, which focuses on producing custom content.

Also making headlines Tuesday was Push Pop Press, a startup from former Apple designer and Delicious Monster founder Michael Matas. The startup, which aims to create a "new breed" of interactive digital books, launched a teaser site Tuesday. ...

B&N's Nooknewstand (the Combo of Nookmagazine & Nooknewspaper) a Success Thus Far

Readers get here what they can't on iPad: subscriptions. Crave - CNET: In a press release, Barnes & Noble says, 'Digital periodical sales are exceeding expectations with more than 650,000 total subscriptions and single copy sales driven by Nook Color customers reading interactive versions of all of their favorite newspapers and magazines ... .'"

Digital Subscription Numbers from Barnes & Noble

PW: "Barnes & Noble ... said since the launch of the Nookcolor it has sold more than 650,000 total subscriptions and single copy sales of digital editions of newspapers and magazines. Since Christmas Day customers have already ordered 150% more subscriptions than the total number sold over the entire previous 12 months, B&N said."

Social Magazines - What's Their Business Model?

NY Times: "Social magazines is a term that Flipboard came up with. It's come to mean a News Reader type application for the iPad that has the visual appeal of a magazine, along with the social media features common to this era of the Web (integration with Facebook, Twitter and other social apps). Social magazine apps will become a key application for tablets over the next couple of years. Also we will see existing magazines on the iPad, such as Wired and TIME, evolve to become more like Flipboard - with better customization of magazine sections, whizzier UI, more social media functionality, and so on. An important question for Flipboard, NewsMix and other such apps is: how will they make money? Wired, TIME and other specialist magazines will rely on the subscription model (once it gets sorted out for the iPad). However, Flipboard and its ilk face the same issues with monetization as RSS Readers did in the previous Web era. ... "

Apple Tightens Rules for iPad Subscription Model

intomobile: "It looks like Apple is preparing a subscription service for the iPhone and iPad for digital magazine and newspapers but there may be some unexpected consequences as it tightens up its restrictions. NRC is saying that Apple is tightening up its restrictions ahead of this subscription model, as it is indicating that subscriptions for the iPad can only be had through the iTunes store with Apple taking a cut. ... "

Magazines Pursue Tablets, but Apple Limits iPad Subscriptions

NYTimes:

Since Apple introduced the iPad last year, publishers have poured millions of dollars into apps in the hopes that the device could revolutionize the industry by changing the way magazines are read and sold to consumers.

But at the same time, the industry is discovering a lesson already learned by music labels and Hollywood studios: Apple may offer new opportunities with its devices, but it exacts a heavy toll. Magazine publishers argue in particular that limiting magazine sales on the iPad to single issues (except in a handful of cases) has hamstrung publishers from fully capitalizing on a new and lucrative business model.

“If you look at the Apple store,” said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, which offers five publications on the iPad, “the most common reason that people give an app a low rating is that it lacks a subscription option. They want to subscribe, and they don’t like the idea of paying $4.99 a month.

Many applications cost almost as much as a printed copy of a magazine, a difficult concept for consumers to get their heads around considering that a paper product is more expensive to assemble and distribute than an electronic version of a magazine. The New Yorker, for example, costs $4.99 an issue in Apple’s App Store but $5.99 on the newsstand. Esquire is also $4.99 an issue, the same as the cover price on the newsstand. ...

Brands Create Media Outlets Online, Bypassing Magazines

NYTimes:

In the not-so-distant past, a luxury brand like Richemont, the Swiss company that owns Piaget, Dunhill and Montblanc, would have killed for even the slightest attention from Jeremy Langmead, the editor of British Esquire.

Now, he works for them, building a menswear e-commerce site.

Luxury brands have always advertised in the likes of Vogue, Esquire and Architectural Digest and tried to impress their editors enough to get mentioned in the editorial pages, as well. But now companies like Richemont are reaching out directly to consumers — and cutting out the middlemen.

Last year, Richemont acquired control of Net-A-Porter, the 10-year-old online luxury fashion retailer founded by the British magazine editor Natalie Massenet. When it first began, people in the industry sniffed at Net-A-Porter, suggesting it was just a tatty e-commerce site masquerading as digital fashion magazine.

They’re not sniffing anymore. Net-A-Porter sold for over half a billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive purchases of a consumer publisher — if that’s what it is — in many years. ...

Want a Successful iPad App? Impress the Reader, Not Yourself

Matt Kinsman @ FolioMag: "Long downloads and rich media that serves no purpose are holding us back. ... With the flood of magazine apps hitting the market and many titles seeing downloads drop after the initial splash, publishers are looking at ways of standing out both to readers and advertisers. iPad-only editions are gaining traction, such as Bonnier's launch of Parenting Seasons but user experience (quick downloads, easy navigation) remains the key. As publishers we can thump our chest about Apple's strong-arm tactics and the lack of a workable digital newsstand, but the fact is long downloads and an emphasis on the one-time 'wow-factor' (as well as treating the iPad like a closed environment, similar to a print magazine) rather than giving readers reasons to come back are even more dangerous. ... "

Dallas Morning News To Erect Paywall in February

Justin Ellis, Nieman Journalism Lab: " ... The move is not entirely a surprise given that other large metro papers, The New York Times and the Boston Globe, are developing paywalls. It’s also less of a surprise since A.H. Belo, parent company of the News, said in 2009 that it was considering switching some of its papers to paid sites. ... "

Google Digital Newsstand Aims to Muscle In on Apple

WSJ: "Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have stepped up their battle to win over publishers, as the two companies vie to become the dominant distributor of newspapers and magazines for tablet computers and other mobile devices. Google is trying to drum up publishers' support for a new Google-operated digital newsstand for users of devices that run its Android software. With the effort, it is chasing Apple, which already sells digital versions of many major magazines and newspapers through its iTunes store. ... "

iPad Not a Savior of Magazines - Digital Sales Continue to Fall

ReadWriteWeb via NY Times: "If publishers are looking to the iPad to help revive (or extend) magazine sales, recent figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) aren't good news. While not all magazines that are available on the iPad release their digital single-issue sales to the ABC, those that do all show a significant year-end drop. WWD reports that Vanity Fair sold 8,700 digital editions of its November issue, down from an average of about 10,500 for the previous three months. Glamour sold 4,300 digital copies in September, but sales fell by 20% in October and then another 20% to 2,775 in November. GQ's November edition sold 11,000 copies, its worst sales figures since the iPad was released. ... "

My analysis: Most of the implementations just … suck. There’s little or no value added to the content. The technology is not leveraged to produce a truly enhanced publication. This is the trend. Half-assed efforts result in half-assed results ... and thus lousy consumer response.

Also, many of the magazines in question make all or most of their content available for free on the web. So, in the absence of significant enhancements to the iPad editions, why on earth would someone pay for content one can otherwise easily (and legally) access without charge? And do so right from the iPad, the same platform upon which the app runs.