Apple has already revolutionised the way the music industry works with iTunes, and arguably changed the way mobile phone companies work forever. They set about doing the same thing with publishing when the original iPad was released in early 2010, but things haven’t really taken off. One of Apple’s latest additions in iOS 5 may have just changed all that, according to reports.
While magazine and newspaper publishers have put out their own apps in a bid to claw new life out of their ageing model, the take-up amongst customers has been hit and miss (with more misses than hits).
Apple’s latest addition to its content arsenal is Newsstand, a “custom news stand for all your subscriptions” which, the company hopes, will provide increased exposure for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. If Condé Nast’s recent figures are believed, Apple might just have cracked it…
According to a report by paidContent, Condé Nast has seen weekly subscriptions for all nine of its digital magazines (Allure, Brides, Glamour, Self,GQ, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired) increase significantly since the introduction of iOS 5 and Newsstand. How significantly? A whopping 268%.
It’s not just subscriptions that have increased — single issue purchases have also seen a rise. Sales have increased 142% for individual issues of magazines when compared with the previous eight weeks’ figures.
Increased discovery due to the new store-front offered by Newsstand is believed to be the reason for the increase in sales, according to Condé Nast executive vice president Monia Ray:
“Putting all the magazines in one place just makes the most sense, in terms of allowing easy discovery for consumers.”
Have you found yourself dropping cash for magazines or newspapers since the introduction of Newsstand, or have you spent the last two weeks trying to hide its icon?