Can Condé Nast Set The Trend For Magazine Publishing On The iPad?

The publisher, Condé Nast, is reportedly starting to offer in-app subscriptions for eight of its magazine publications on the iPad, according to the New York Post (via MacRumors). The subscriptions will begin to take effect this week with some, like The New Yorker magazine, already starting to appear. Accompanying the new in-app purchase scheme will be drastic price cuts.

Up until now, the pricing for the iPad edition of The New Yorker had been on a par with the print edition but with no discount for subscriptions. The new pricing will be $5.99 per month for the weekly publication or $59.99 per year. Additionally, print subscribers of Condé Nast publications will be able to access the digital edition free of charge as part of their subscription plan. Additional publications will be available at $1.99 per single issue with annual subscriptions as little as $19.99.

The alteration to the pricing marks an incredibly positive change to the manner in which digital publications are sold on the iPad. Since the launch of the iPad, many publishers had struggled to get to grips with the pricing of digital publications and had ended up charging way over the odds for content on the iPad which frequently ended up in badly designed and unstable apps. Additionally, some publishers would not even include digital content access when a consumer had subscribed to a print edition. Back in August, I highlighted this discrepancy in an editorial. CLICK HERE for the full story. 

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