Rolling Stone debuts in Apple's iPad Newsstand

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Just under two years after the magazine's co-founder decried other publishers' rush to embrace Apple's in-app subscription plans for the iPad, Rolling Stone's first iPad edition hit Apple's Newsstand app Thursday.

Rolling Stone


The new Rolling Stone iPad edition brings all of the music news, album and movie reviews, celebrity profiles, and national affairs reporting of the print edition, along with support for rich media content. Articles on musicians and albums will contain links allowing readers to preview and buy songs from iTunes.

The publishers behind the magazine said the app is part of a planned progression that has seen more content from Wenner Media ? the company that owns Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, and Us Weekly ? appearing on the iPad. In 2011, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner said in an interview that magazine publishers were "crazy" to embrace the iPad, given the then-low sales of publications on the device, the cost of conversion, and a small revenue stream from digital content.

At the time, Wenner said he had no interest in brokering a deal with Apple, saying that would "mortgage [him] into the future on the basis of getting 2,000 copies sold a month."

Since then, a number of other large publishers have brought titles to the iPad. They have been encouraged, in part, by studies showing that iPad owners spend $70,000 per day on Newsstand, Apple's content aggregator and online content store for iOS devices.

The young history of magazine-style publications on the iPad is a mixed one, with some firms benefitting to the tune of millions, while others tailored to the platform have floundered.

The introduction of Apple's Newsstand feature reportedly led to a 268 percent jump in digital subscriptions for magazine publisher Cond? Nast. Popular Science, too, saw a 13 percent jump in sales in the week after Newsstand's debut.

Digital subscription numbers, though, are said to remain far below physical circulation figures. Even after a 13 percent spike in Popular Science's digital subscriptions, total iPad subscribers for the magazine at the time were only just above 40,000, a far cry from the magazine's 1.2 million print subscriptions.

Subscription based content on the iPad runs through Apple's in-app subscription plan. Under that plan, Apple takes a 30 percent cut out of all transactions, another factor that has made Wenner and other publishers reluctant to embrace the platform.

The new Rolling Stone app is available in Apple's iTunes Store. Single issues cost $4.99, the same as a newsstand copy. iPad subscriptions are $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ....



    Digital subscription numbers, though, are said to remain far below physical circulation figures. Even after a 13 percent spike in Popular Science's digital subscriptions, total iPad subscribers for the magazine at the time were only just above 40,000, a far cry from the magazine's 1.2 million print subscriptions.



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    The future is already written : dematerialization, just like CDs, DVDs .... The ones who are unable to understand this will disappear (In France Virgin Megastore closed , the same with HMV in UK)

  • Reply 2 of 16
    At the time that he made the comment the situation was very different and who knew how the future would go. So based on the current times he was smart to be cautious and not jump in simply because it was the new gip thing.

    Not unlike many of the comments made by Steve Jobs and dug up five and six years later. Or even Apples general practice of waiting and being the best, not the first
  • Reply 3 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by umrk_lab View Post


     


     


    The future is already written : dematerialization, just like CDs, DVDs .... The ones who are unable to understand this will disappear (In France Virgin Megastore closed , the same with HMV in UK)



    Absolutely. It just astounds me that the people in charge of these companies are often incapable of perceiving the obvious. 

  • Reply 4 of 16
    Guess what? If you are a print subscriber to Rolling Stone like me, you must come up with another $20 per year to get the digital edition. NFW.

    Check out the publications that don't require this: New York Times, National Geographic, Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Style.
  • Reply 5 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Fithian View Post



    Guess what? If you are a print subscriber to Rolling Stone like me, you must come up with another $20 per year to get the digital edition. NFW.



    Check out the publications that don't require this: New York Times, National Geographic, Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Style.


     


     


    The fault is on Apple's side, for being too greedy !!!!  /s

  • Reply 6 of 16


    My #1 problem with most Newsstand apps isn't price. It's the download size of each issue. A typical issue of Car & Driver, for instance, weighs in at 200MB and up. That is just too much for something I may read just once or twice. Each issue should be offered in two versions, one for offline viewing (that includes full contents) and one for online viewing (that downloads images on-demand).

  • Reply 7 of 16


    Originally Posted by filburt View Post

    That is just too much for something I may read just once or twice.


     


    What does it matter? You're just going to delete it.

  • Reply 8 of 16
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    200MG is nothing. Each issue of Macleans is typically in the 1GB range, which is just idiotic and assinine. On a 16GB iPad mini, thats just irritating.
  • Reply 9 of 16
    fithian wrote: »
    Guess what? If you are a print subscriber to Rolling Stone like me, you must come up with another $20 per year to get the digital edition. NFW.

    Check out the publications that don't require this: New York Times, National Geographic, Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Style.

    Fast Company, Consumer Reports,...

    Totally agree. I'm not going to pay twice for the same content. I still can't read on the iPad during takeoff and landing, so the digital copy is worth less tome than print. If it's included with my subscription, great. Otherwise I'm not interested (yet).
  • Reply 10 of 16
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by filburt View Post


    My #1 problem with most Newsstand apps isn't price. It's the download size of each issue. A typical issue of Car & Driver, for instance, weighs in at 200MB and up. That is just too much for something I may read just once or twice. Each issue should be offered in two versions, one for offline viewing (that includes full contents) and one for online viewing (that downloads images on-demand).



    There isn't an "archive" option? There are subscriptions that offer that. Maybe suggest it for C&D?

  • Reply 11 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by filburt View Post


    My #1 problem with most Newsstand apps isn't price. It's the download size of each issue. A typical issue of Car & Driver, for instance, weighs in at 200MB and up. That is just too much for something I may read just once or twice. Each issue should be offered in two versions, one for offline viewing (that includes full contents) and one for online viewing (that downloads images on-demand).



     


    I agree. Magazines take up way too much space and have limited utility. Most magazine web sites are better than their magazines. I'd rather have an e-book, music or a movie... and the movie would end up deleted also due to the size.

  • Reply 12 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Fithian View Post



    Guess what? If you are a print subscriber to Rolling Stone like me, you must come up with another $20 per year to get the digital edition. NFW.



    Check out the publications that don't require this: New York Times, National Geographic, Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Style.


     


    Wired do the same too - take out a (cheap when the offers are on!) print subscription, register your subscriber number and address in the Wired newsstand app and bingo - digital editions for free for the life of your print subscription...  It's brilliant, and how it should be done! I think Conde Naste do this with most of their titles that have a digitial edition although I only subscribe to wired so I can't guarantee that...


     


     


     


    Quote:


    Originally Posted by filburt 


    My #1 problem with most Newsstand apps isn't price. It's the download size of each issue. A typical issue of Car & Driver, for instance, weighs in at 200MB and up. 




     


    Wired issues are anything from around 600Mb upwards depending how many embedded videos they contain.... 

  • Reply 13 of 16
    filburtfilburt Posts: 398member


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    What does it matter? You're just going to delete it.




     


    I've deleted C&D once and let the subscription run out. I've lost access to past issues completely, even though C&D app has "restore access" feature.

  • Reply 14 of 16
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Be careful. I signed up for a one year sub, then (as is my practice) looked for the switch to turn off auto-renew. Turns out they don't provide that ability within the app as they are supposed to, and they give incorrect instructions for disabling auto-renew in their FAQ.
    I ended up going through a proper magazine (Marco's The Magazine) to disable it.
    I smell standard publishing industry dishonesty at work.
  • Reply 15 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaveMcM76 View Post


     


    Wired do the same too - take out a (cheap when the offers are on!) print subscription, register your subscriber number and address in the Wired newsstand app and bingo - digital editions for free for the life of your print subscription...  



     


    Same with Mad Magazine as well. I have a print subscription, so I get a digital subscription for free. Quite a lot of thought has gone into making the digital version of the magazine, as opposed to just scanning pages.

  • Reply 16 of 16


    The downside of a digital Rolling Stone subscription (I've been using Zinio for this up until now) is that it doesn't include access to the Rolling Stone archives. That only comes with a print subscription. I hope that changes now that they're on Newstand, but I'm not holding my breath. Progress Mr. Wenner, but you still have a way to go.

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