And what the tablet market finally provides is a viable digital business, something that eluded them with the rise of the Internet. Magazine publishers who are still stinging from the economic collapse of 2008 want more than anything to settle on a business model that works on their terms. But no such deals have been struck yet with Condé Nast, Hearst or Time Inc., said people close to discussions with Apple that were intended to be private. It is expected that magazines will eventually have an arrangement similar to the one the News Corporation has with Apple that allows for iPad subscriptions. He has personally involved himself in its development and has been known to drop in on The Daily’s offices from time to time on the 26th floor of company’s Midtown Manhattan office tower. The project is a top priority for Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation. They want to subscribe, and they don’t like the idea of paying $4.99 a month.” “If you look at the Apple store,” said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, which offers five publications on the iPad, “the most common reason that people give an app a low rating is that it lacks a subscription option. Magazine publishers argue in particular that limiting magazine sales on the iPad to single issues (except in a handful of cases) has hamstrung publishers from fully capitalizing on a new and lucrative business model.
Since Apple introduced the iPad last year, publishers have poured millions of dollars into apps in the hopes that the device could revolutionize the industry by changing the way magazines are read and sold to consumers.īut at the same time, the industry is discovering a lesson already learned by music labels and Hollywood studios: Apple may offer new opportunities with its devices, but it exacts a heavy toll. The frustration that the country’s magazine and newspaper publishers feel toward Apple can sound a lot like a variation on the old relationship gripe, “can’t live with ’em, may get left behind without ’em.”