Conde Nast's text-focused New Yorker iPad app draws 20k subscribers
Publisher Condé Nast has seen early success with its iPad app for The New Yorker magazine, drawing in a total of 100,000 readers, including 20,000 paying digital subscribers.
The New York Times reports the digital subscription numbers for the iPad version of the publisher's flagship magazine. Given that readers pay $59.99 a year for a digital subscription, Condé Nast appears to have made close to $1.2 million in subscription revenue from the app so far, before Apple's 30 percent cut. The digital version has also attracted 75,000 print subscribers who can download the app for free. The remaining several thousand readers choose to buy single issues for $4.99 a week.
The company's strategy for the publication of eschewing tablet-specific interactive features to focus instead on simply providing clean, readable text has led the magazine to become its best-selling iPad product.
?That was really important to us: to create an app all about reading,? said deputy editor Pamela Maffei McCarthy. ?There are some bells and whistles, but we?re very careful about that. We think about whether or not they add any value. And if they don?t, out the window they go.?
Analysts were optimistic about the magazine's success so far. ?Those, to me, sound like strong numbers,? comScore vice president Andrew Lipsman said, adding that he was particularly impressed by the fact that customers had paid a premium to subscribe.
In May, The New Yorker became the first of its publisher's titles to begin offering in-app subscriptions. The iPad editions of several other high-profile magazines from the company, such as Wired, GQ, and Vanity Fair have also implemented in-app subscriptions, but have not met with the same success as The New Yorker.
It is not known whether the initial success of The New Yorker app has shifted the company's digital strategy. In April, it was said that the publisher was "tapping the brakes" on iPad editions of its print magazines because of weaker-than-expected sales.
Apple first announced the addition of an in-app subscription feature in February, but quickly drew criticism because of new rules that restricted prices for out-of-app offers and banned links for purchasing content on external websites. Though the publishing industry initially balked at the terms, several major publishers have accepted the iPad maker's terms and initiated in-app subscriptions.
The Cupertino, Calif., company eventually backed down from a rule that required in-app subscription offers to be equal or better to those outside of the app. Apple did not, however, budge on the rule blocking links to out-of-app purchases.
Several prominent companies, including The Wall Street Journal, Amazon and Barnes & Noble have removed "buy" buttons from their apps, rather than give Apple 30 percent of its sales. Streaming video service Hulu also removed from its iPad app a link that sent interested customers to its website.
The New York Times reports the digital subscription numbers for the iPad version of the publisher's flagship magazine. Given that readers pay $59.99 a year for a digital subscription, Condé Nast appears to have made close to $1.2 million in subscription revenue from the app so far, before Apple's 30 percent cut. The digital version has also attracted 75,000 print subscribers who can download the app for free. The remaining several thousand readers choose to buy single issues for $4.99 a week.
The company's strategy for the publication of eschewing tablet-specific interactive features to focus instead on simply providing clean, readable text has led the magazine to become its best-selling iPad product.
?That was really important to us: to create an app all about reading,? said deputy editor Pamela Maffei McCarthy. ?There are some bells and whistles, but we?re very careful about that. We think about whether or not they add any value. And if they don?t, out the window they go.?
Analysts were optimistic about the magazine's success so far. ?Those, to me, sound like strong numbers,? comScore vice president Andrew Lipsman said, adding that he was particularly impressed by the fact that customers had paid a premium to subscribe.
In May, The New Yorker became the first of its publisher's titles to begin offering in-app subscriptions. The iPad editions of several other high-profile magazines from the company, such as Wired, GQ, and Vanity Fair have also implemented in-app subscriptions, but have not met with the same success as The New Yorker.
It is not known whether the initial success of The New Yorker app has shifted the company's digital strategy. In April, it was said that the publisher was "tapping the brakes" on iPad editions of its print magazines because of weaker-than-expected sales.
Apple first announced the addition of an in-app subscription feature in February, but quickly drew criticism because of new rules that restricted prices for out-of-app offers and banned links for purchasing content on external websites. Though the publishing industry initially balked at the terms, several major publishers have accepted the iPad maker's terms and initiated in-app subscriptions.
The Cupertino, Calif., company eventually backed down from a rule that required in-app subscription offers to be equal or better to those outside of the app. Apple did not, however, budge on the rule blocking links to out-of-app purchases.
Several prominent companies, including The Wall Street Journal, Amazon and Barnes & Noble have removed "buy" buttons from their apps, rather than give Apple 30 percent of its sales. Streaming video service Hulu also removed from its iPad app a link that sent interested customers to its website.
Comments
I work in Fashion and will be moving to NYC. I know the basics to this question like go to their website, get an internship, look on job websites, but does anyone know how to get a job working the fashion department of a magazine for them or who you contact. Thanks.
Do you honestly think you will get an answer from a technology forum full of nerds and geeks?
Do you honestly think you will get an answer from a technology forum full of nerds and geeks?
but but but .. all the computers in 'The Devil Wears Prada' were apple!
but but but .. all the computers in 'The Devil Wears Prada' were apple!
And they all looked like prissy, up-market idiots I wanted to punch in the face!
I work in Fashion and will be moving to NYC. I know the basics to this question like go to their website, get an internship, look on job websites, but does anyone know how to get a job working the fashion department of a magazine for them or who you contact. Thanks.
it is true, geeks probably don't know a lot about fashion. But you are seeing the future of magazine viewing - which will be ultimately a successful subscription business model .. that includes fashion.. so if you have a service to provide that creatively fits into what will be seen on media tablets in the future, you next need to resource that and find a way to work in that industry. good luck!
As for a subscription model: I am in. The transition from paper to screen is easily made here with the New Yorker. I still get the paper version - but it sits on the counter and then gets stacked on a shelf. I am reading it on the ipad at all times of day and night when a waking moment allows diversion to one of my favorite magazines - the New Yorker.
Advantage: I read it from cover to cover because it opens up right where i left off. This may seem like a logical sameness with the print version, but I find I read more of the magazine on the ipad like in days past when i had time to read it cover to cover in one sitting. i do not have that kind of free time right now.
Advantage - For the Magazine business model: I am seeing the advertisements as a whole page just like in the print version. I flick by them to get to the articles - but the advertisement gets more recognition from me than in the print version. (With fashion advertising, i see expandable visual effects coming).
Advantage: It is archived several issues back, so i can refer to previous issues. I have enjoyed re-reading short stories in previous issues because they are right there for me to read again. I have already gone to Amazon and ordered books by the author of a short story i enjoyed in the New Yorker.
Advantage: The New Yorker is sending me special issues free that are not offered in print.
Advantage: I can take it with me on a device I have to have with me for other tasks anyway, so it is more likely to get read on my ipad than in print form.
Advantage: I still have the print version sent to me too - the price is the same, so i can still take it to the beach and see it easily under the umbrella (wishing I had a beach ipad has occurred to me). In the future, I will probably be given a choice to buy a tablet subscription without printed version at a reduced price. I will take advantage of it, while reluctantly, nostalgically regretting not having the print version just laying around cluttering my apartment. It won't be hard to give it up as they are easing me into the reality of it - I am ready to make the switch and they haven't even asked yet. It will be a transition forgotten by future readers as print becomes too expensive to buy and have mailed to me (post office costs are not going down).
Advantage: the subscription base who reads the New Yorker are a devoted franchise who probably are early adopters to reading on a screen as well a print medium. So why not grow with the flow where your customer base is growing with media tablets. Good idea New Yorker!
Advantage: I have never spent a lot of time reading the poetry in the New Yorker. But now, I listen to every poem - I love this feature! I have listened several times to the same poem as it is a sort of epiphany for me to enjoy a feature never read in the print version. I wonder if it is being read to me by the person who wrote it?
It is just a beginning in IMO. It is the only tablet magazine business model so far that has me hooked. I am ready to say it is a part of my overall tablet experience as a feature benefit not to go without. I would miss it if they stopped publishing on the ipad. I will pay for it the same price i am paying for the paper version because it offers more user friendly advantages. If i had to make a choice today because of cost, I would drop the paper version.
I have read the New Yorker since the 60's.. I have an archived version on CD and can't wait until the magazine progresses to offering archived search on line as a benefit with a subscription. I was just thinking I would like to re-read a story about Pelé in the Olympics (I think in Mexico city?) many years ago. I can go get the CD's out and find it. But why not have search and just have it as a feature benefit of the subscription instead?
It is very cool to have this magazine offered on the iPad. I consider it a major feature benefit or value enhancement offered with the device.
Today, I have a doctors appointment. While waiting i can interact or read with a lot of different media on the ipad. Having the New Yorker available is making it all the better to have along with me. Note; I do not pay for the New York times and I did enjoy reading it in print and later on line in the past. The reason is that I can read a big percentage of what is offered in the Nytimes on line for free because the times has become nothing but headlines that can be read anywhere on any newspaper the majority of the time. What the times offers that is unique I can do without if they ask a high price for it along with what i can read anywhere for free elsewhere as part of the total offering paid for. The point being that the total experience of the New Yorker has value on the ipad all by itself. It is unique and has value. The total experience of reading a news paper has diminished with much or all of it being offered free by multiple sources. That kind of experience or business model will only be paid for if it is an additional benefit of a subscription that offers much more than a newspaper. If they want me to subscribe to the New York times, they will have to find a way to offer it free with something else I am willing to pay for like the New Yorker. I can't read anything like the New Yorker for free. It is a business model that will be paid for and will be successful on a media tablet.
Advantage: I have never spent a lot of time reading the poetry in the New Yorker. But now, I listen to every poem - I love this feature! I have listened several times to the same poem as it is a sort of epiphany for me to enjoy a feature never read in the print version. I wonder if it is being read to me by the person who wrote it?
It's funny that you mention poetry, when another big seller on the iPad has been the multimedia version of TS Elliot's 'The Wasteland'. There would be a wonderful irony if the iPad led a resurgence of poetry.