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When I got an Android device, I discovered they are trying an alternative distribution model. This company Next Issue sells a subscription for $10/month that ba
by fusiongyro 14y ago
When I got an Android device, I discovered they are trying an alternative distribution model. This company Next Issue sells a subscription for $10/month that basically entitles you to read any of some ~50 magazines on your tablet. The thing that really rubbed me the wrong way is that I theoretically get the New Yorker electronic edition for free since I'm a full subscriber, but I'd still have to pay an extra $10/month to use the Next Issue app (unlike the New Yorker app for iPad). They also sell a "premium" subscription for $15/month that includes the New Yorker and some other "premium" magazines (like Sports Illustrated). Then I discovered the New Yorker restricts people to devices with particular resolutions, which my tablet didn't have.
So they're trying to figure it out, in fits and starts, but they seem to be aiming for Hulu, which doesn't strike me as the best model of success.
- spitx 14y agoI, for one, think that print publications have left far too many revenue streams on the table when the going was good, before the advent of Craigslist & Google, even before the blogs of today - Huffington Post & the like - started robbing attention share away from established print outlets. Print publications were and are notoriously stubborn in many ways. They could have done a dozen things to immunize themselves from the online entrants in the early days. They didn't. Now they're having to deal with the consequence of their arrogance and myopia in ways they've never imagined.