After a long two-year holdout, the popular magazine Rolling Stone has finally decided to embrace Apple’s tablet. The publication’s first iPad edition hit the Newsstand app last night in subscription flavors of $1.99 per month and $19.99 per year. It’s optimized for the slate, and interactive, with iTunes links embedded in all media-related articles…
For those who aren’t familiar with the publication, Rolling Stone is an American magazine published every two weeks devoted to music, liberal politics, and pop culture. Wenner Media (via paidContent) describes the iPad launch as a planned progression, which began in May of 2010 when the outlet launched the Rolling Stone’s Beatles guide app.
From the App Store:
“Rolling Stone comes to life on the iPad – with all the breaking music news, hot album and movie reviews, must-read rock star profiles and in-depth national affairs reporting you love in the magazine. Plus, download our new app now and get a 1 Month Free Trial subscription. That is a Free Month packed with great writing, exclusive photos and instant streaming samples of the best new music in the world.”
All subscriptions start after the 1 month free trial period expires. At that time, payment for the subscription plan you choose will be taken from your iTunes account. It’s your standard Newsstand subscription deal really — each month your commitment will be automatically renewed until you cancel it. You can also buy a single issue of Rolling Stone for $4.99.
Unfortunately, The iPad edition of the bi-monthly supplement will not be bundled with the print issue. So even if you already subscribe to Rolling Stone Magazine, you’ll still have to pay for the iPad version, which is a pretty big snub to current customers. At any rate, if you want to check out Rolling Stone for iPad, you can grab it from the App Store for free.