Two Years Later, Time Inc. Finally Hitches Its Wagon to Apple’s Newsstand

Two Years Later, Time Inc. Finally Hitches Its Wagon to Apple’s Newsstand

The publishing business is an extremely fragile one, and nowhere is that more true than with companies who specialize in magazines. Now, giants like Time Inc. are finally starting to embrace Apple’s Newsstand as the path to a new digital future.

The New York Times is reporting that Time Inc. and Apple Inc. have reached an agreement that will see all of the publisher’s magazine content offered through digital subscriptions from the iPhone maker’s Newsstand -- a move that’s taken Time nearly two years to commit to.

20 magazines published by Time Inc. will now be available for direct subscription within their Newsstand-based apps, including People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly. While competing publishers like Condé Nast and Hearst were quick to jump on board Apple’s digital initiative, Time Inc. has remained a notable holdout, despite having apps available that offered single-issue sales and free access for print subscribers.

“For a magazine or brand like People or Time, a tablet will become an increasingly important part of the experience,” Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang explained. “Our goal is to offer content where our consumers want to read it.”

Lang is considered instrumental to the embrace of Newsstand, who took over as chief executive at Time Inc. back in January after serving the same post at digital ad agency Digitas. The CEO claims that cutting a subscription deal with Apple was “a top priority.”

“We watched newsstand evolve over the last year and became satisfied they understand our customers and can meet our needs,” explained Gary Ginsberg, a spokesman for Time Inc.’s parent company, Time Warner.

The deal is a coup for Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue, who pointed out that the majority of Newsstand customers “buy subscriptions rather than single issues.”

“There was some controversy early on because it was something new and hadn’t been done before,” Cue said, noting that Time Inc. didn’t receive any preferential treatment to lure them onto Newsstand.

“We offer the same terms to everyone no matter how big or how small,” he concluded.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

(Image courtesy of The New York Times)

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