Why You Can’t Subscribe To Digital Magazines On Your iPad [ITunes]

The iPad was purported to herald a new era in publishing. But the growing rift between Apple and Time Inc. shows that the early troubles clouding digital magazines have only gotten worse. So: is iTunes a mailbox or a newsstand?

It\’s a query that actually comes right down to control. Publishers like Time Inc. would like to have the ability to treat iTunes like several other method of distribution. They wish a subscription model that gives steady revenue, they wish the demographic data that advertisers pay top dollar for. And why wouldn\’t they? Last year subscriptions accounted for 90% of magazine sales. That is why when Apple didn\’t approve a subscription Sports Illustrated app, Time Inc. was frustrated enough to think of pulling out of iTunes altogether.

On Apple\’s side of the ledger, they\’ve had rather a lot success with their walled garden strategy to music content that it is smart they\’d wish to extend that control to publishing. It\’s in contrast to they don\’t have the technology technology to support in-app subscriptions: you may already do this with the Wall Street Journal.

Apple could be overreaching hence. The concept that people would go back and keep buying single issues of a magazine for $5 a bit makes no more sense in iTunes than it does at the newsstand. And a subscription model would surely generate enough iAd revenue to make up for the lower per-issue cost.

If magazines are going to survive on the iPad, you\’re going to should be capable of sign up for them. And if the iPad\’s going to be the long run of media, it\’s going to wish to embrace at the very least partially the present model. Or we will be able to all just look forward to an Android tablet to return along that lets content creators be content sellers in addition. [Media Memo]

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This post is tagged: digital, iPad, iTunes, Magazines, Subscribe, why