Popular Science Sees Readership Boost Thanks to Apple’s Newsstand

Apple’s Newsstand is proving to be a big hit, both with those who own iPads and iPhones and with those behind the magazines and newspapers themselves.

New figures released by the people behind Popular Science show just how big a difference to subscriber numbers Newsstand has made. In the wake of iOS 5 and Newsstand’s release, Popular Science has seen its subscribers jump by around 4,000, and its customer base continues to grow…

In the weeks since iOS 5 was introduced, Popular Science’s reader numbers have jumped from 28,300 to 40,700, which is a considerable increase. While still short of the numbers garnered by the paper version, the Newsstand-powered version of Popular Science has seen significant increases in sales, mainly thanks to the increased visibility afforded by the introduction of Newsstand.

This is not the first time we have had reports of stellar sales thanks to Newsstand. We recently heard how Condé Nast was seeing increased weekly subscriptions to each of its digital magazines, also thanks to the addition of Newsstand in iOS 5.

Tablets like Apple’s iPad are not quite ready to replace paper-based newspapers and magazines, but if the industry is forced to take note by increased sales in the medium, then that can only be a good thing for the future. As tablets become cheaper, lighter, and more accessible, it may only be a matter of time before tablets become the way to read our daily and monthly periodicals.

[Electronista]