Newsstand app brings Condé Nast 268% boom in subscription sales on iPad

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Magazine publisher Condé Nast announced on Tuesday that weekly digital subscription sales of its titles jumped up 268 percent following the arrival of Newsstand and iOS 5 on the iPad earlier this month.



The company released a press release noting that, since Newsstand was released on Oct. 12, new subscription sales for all nine digital editions of its titles have gone up 268 percent, while single copy sales are up 142 percent, as compared to the previous eight weeks.



?We couldn?t be happier,? said Executive Vice President Monica Ray. ?It?s clear that the focused attention and greater discoverability Newsstand provides our brands has been embraced by the consumer. While we recognize the spike in sales is in part fueled by the attention the launch received, we are very optimistic that we will see a consistently higher level of growth going forward than we did prior to the app?s introduction.?



Newsstand is a new application in iOS 5 that acts as a folder for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. The app automatically downloads new content and alerts the user. It also offers access to a specific subscriptions section of the App Store.



The nine titles currently available on the iPad include: Allure, Brides Glamour, Self, GQ, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired. Three additional titles, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit and Vogue, are scheduled to launch on the iPad by early 2012.







The sales boost should give much-needed momentum to digital subscriptions on the iPad. In April, a report claimed that the publisher was "tapping the brakes" on its iPad editions as it waited for the market to mature. Condé Nast adopted Apple's in-app subscription feature this summer.



The publisher said last month that its monthly digital circulation has reached 500,00, including 225,000 digital-only subscribers. Meanwhile, rival publisher Hearst announced in September that paid downloads of its digital titles across several platforms had topped 300,000 per month.



Apple unveiled the Newsstand feature in June as part of the first public preview of iOS 5 at the Worldwide Developers Conference.







Software giant Adobe has announced that it will add support for Newsstand to its Digital Publishing Suite. The company boasts that the suite has been used to create more than 600 titles for the iPad, Google Android tablets and Research in Motion's PlayBook.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,389member
    To be expected. People mocked Newsstand as 'meh', but it was a genius move, and predictably will increase both usage and discoverability of this category of apps.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    To be expected. People mocked Newsstand as 'meh', but it was a genius move, and predictably will increase both usage and discoverability of this category of apps.



    Totally agree. When I was running iOS 5 beta, I had a folder called "Useless Apps" in which I had News Stand and iTunes (both of which cannot be removed from the iPad and both of which were no use to me as I cannot buy music from iTunes).



    However, within days of iOS 5 going live, I found a lot of interesting magazines that I could browse through. True, I feel most of them are overpriced, but the free back issue is a good enough indicator of whether it is worth buying future issues.



    Of course, I prefer the option to buy issues I want to, rather than a subscription that allows me access to all issues within the subscription period.



    All in all, I think News stand is a neat little app and a nice addition to the iPad.
  • Reply 3 of 16
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    To be expected. People mocked Newsstand as 'meh', but it was a genius move, and predictably will increase both usage and discoverability of this category of apps.



    Agree as well. I hardly ever went on the look out for a magazine or something, but now with Newsstand I am somehow enticed to download a few mags.
  • Reply 4 of 16
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PhilBoogie View Post


    Agree as well. I hardly ever went on the look out for a magazine or something, but now with Newsstand I am somehow enticed to download a few mags.



    That's just because that blank newstand is staring you in the face if you don't.
  • Reply 5 of 16
    App store shows lots of complaints about Conde Nast magazines ranging from buggy to feature-poor to poor subscription model etc. I think it will eventually be indispensable, but right now it's not ready for prime time. At least when considering the content providers. Presumably someone will come along and show everyone else how it's supposed to be done, hopefully sooner rather than later.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    neilmneilm Posts: 1,000member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by maverator View Post


    App store shows lots of complaints about Conde Nast magazines ranging from buggy to feature-poor to poor subscription model etc.



    I beg to differ from those reviews.



    As a subscriber to the paper version of Condé Nast's New Yorker I've also been getting the iPad version at no additional cost. From a technical and usability standpoint it's been entirely satisfactory, plus there's periodic bonus or interactive content in this electronic version. I can't speak to the electronic subscription model, since I was already a paid subscriber.



    Leafing through a traditional magazine is still nice, but having an iPad loaded with reading material is incredibly practical when traveling. I'm going to Europe for a week soon and already have my iPad 2 loaded with a dozen books, several magazines and a number of movies and TV programs. The main challenge will be keeping the battery topped up!
  • Reply 7 of 16
    al_bundyal_bundy Posts: 1,525member
    i looked at the free issues and will never pay money for it. looks like it's just scanned paper copies. in 2011 why would i want to wait a month or more to read about something that happened a long time ago?



    i still remember this one New Yorker article from late 2001. The guy said the US was losing the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban hunkered down and would just wait the bombing out. A few days later Tora Bora happened and the Taliban was defeated
  • Reply 8 of 16
    neilmneilm Posts: 1,000member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by al_bundy View Post


    i looked at the free issues and will never pay money for it. looks like it's just scanned paper copies. in 2011 why would i want to wait a month or more to read about something that happened a long time ago?



    i still remember this one New Yorker article from late 2001. The guy said the US was losing the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban hunkered down and would just wait the bombing out. A few days later Tora Bora happened and the Taliban was defeated



    Interesting message from some parallel universe where a weekly magazine is monthly, where an electronically composed magazine is a scan, and where the Taliban has been defeated.
  • Reply 9 of 16
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I have yet to use this iOS 5.0 feature. I haven't seen any mention of it on sites that have magazine and newspaper equivalents so I assume I'd have access its store from within the app. That's not going to get me to increase my interest.



    Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea, and one that I suggested should be part of the initial iPad release along with textbooks and other digitial formats to really show the world how an Apple Tablet could be the future. Well, the iPad is doing fine without all that but I'm still thinking of Newsstand as my first choice in getting periodicals. I wonder how many others are also ignoring this app.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    shawnbshawnb Posts: 155member
    Interesting they didn't disclose details. I wonder how many were $1.99 monthly subscriptions that will be cancelled after the first auto-renew charge comes through and reminds the customer that they subscribed.



    Newsstand is interesting, but the problem with magazines has been more the content than the format. I'm not sure that paying more for less through a convoluted Newsstand will fix that.



    A year of GQ in glossy dead tree (delivered by the failing post office) costs $15, or you can get dead tree + iPad from GQ.com for $20.



    Or you can get it on Newsstand only for $20 (which nets $14 to Conde). After you open Newsstand, which takes you to App Store, where you can download the GQ "app", then switch back to Newsstand and open GQ, and then click on "subscribe" just to find out how much it costs (because it's not clearly posted anywhere else), and THEN maybe subscribe. Seriously?



    Why isn't Newsstand as intuitive as browsing/purchasing through iBooks? Why isn't digital as cheap (or cheaper than) print?



    My iPad is already overloaded with information, you've either got to be really good (WSJ, Economist, etc) for a premium price; or a quick skim for really cheap. Most magazines fall into the latter category, and are competing for my attention (and losing) against volumes of free content online.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by al_bundy View Post


    in 2011 why would i want to wait a month or more to read about something that happened a long time ago?



    Not all magazines are news. I work at a retirement magazine that does profiles of cities. This information is hardly stale after a few weeks. I think the newstand app will eventually be one of the most used on iOS devices, especially as websites, especially newspapers, are starting to charge for content. Apparently giving away your content for free isn't a great business model.
  • Reply 12 of 16
    This is very good to hear- I am actually subscribing to magazines again!
  • Reply 13 of 16
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,761member
    Yup, Apple are total assholes for "taking" 30% because they don't bring anything to the table.



  • Reply 14 of 16
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I have yet to use this iOS 5.0 feature. I haven't seen any mention of it on sites that have magazine and newspaper equivalents so I assume I'd have access its store from within the app.



    When wanting to buy something from the store, in Newsstand you tap on 'Store' and you 'get ripped out of the App' only to fire up the AppStore App. Doesn't bother me though. It defaults to a 'new' Newsstand section, showing the free magazines. There is a Top Paid button, but in my country only shows 1 single magazine (Magic Numbers, ? 0.79)
  • Reply 15 of 16
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member
    I've been looking at my empty Newsstand a lot and I've been thinking... Wouldn't it be great if we could put our iBooks in Newsstand?
  • Reply 16 of 16
    ikolikol Posts: 369member
    Newsstand is a nuisance. If I wanted all my periodicals in a folder then I should decide not Apple which ones. Also whenever I launch NY Times which prior in ios 4 was a stand alone App but I need to now open 2apps. And 2 Apps are now in my dock! Ny times and Newstand. Newstand is so obviously designed to get you to spend money to Apple- I can't stand it.
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