Well, if there would be enough general interest in "The Magazine"'s format, such that a service Marco sold would cause a flood of app-store clones, then whether

Well, if there would be enough general interest in "The Magazine"'s format, such that a service Marco sold would cause a flood of app-store clones, then whether Marco sells one or not, such a clone will inevitably be created and allow the flood of those clones. That would simply be a realization of basic market forces and not something Marco can control. However, the bigger issue is that Marco thinks that the editorial format is (one of) the key distinguishers between publications: >>A publication’s app should be designed and built with purpose and consideration. The Magazine works because I based decisions not on what everyone else was doing, but on what would be best for this magazine. Every publication has its own unique needs, audience, economics, and style, so their apps should reflect that. I don't think this is significant. The value of a publication is its content, primarily, and the creation and selection thereof. Yes, I do think that a general app store creation service should exist for publications, or even several. Should every publication be burdened with re-inventing the wheel for basic webb/app infrastructure? Looking at the web front-end of The Magazine, I see a basic hierarchy of Issue > Article List > Article Preview, which may not be perfect for every publication, but perhaps close enough? Presumably, the app functionality is also close enough to what a large number of publications would need in terms of UX. Wordpress isn't the perfectly ideal format either for every website with articles but the millions of installations out there still saves the industry a significant amount of time and money.