Apple, Conde Nast reach "New Yorker" iPad deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc and magazine publisher Conde Nast reached a deal to offer the New Yorker on the iPad device in the latest sign that relationships are improving between the technology company and content owners.

Conde Nast said iPad editions of other magazines will also be available by subscription through Apple's In-App Purchase system on the popular App Store. Titles including Vanity Fair, Glamour, Golf Digest, Allure, Wired, Self and GQ will be available in coming weeks.

Publishers have eyed fancy digital versions of print publications for tablet computers like the iPad but have held back because of what they considered onerous terms.

"Over time, we'll see subscriptions leading to greater and greater scale, helping to drive overall industry growth," said Robert Sauerberg, Conde Nast president, in a statement.

Apple clashed with publishers in February when it introduced a standard 30 percent fee on all sales within the App Store, including paid subscriptions.

Many publishers have complained that the fee is too onerous to establish profitable subscription sales via the increasingly popular iPad. Also at issue: whether the publisher or Apple owned the customer relationship.

Conde Nast focused on customer relationship data in its negotiations with Apple's Internet services executive, Eddie Cue.

Under the agreement Conde Nast now has with Apple, when customers subscribe to magazines via the App Store they will receive a prompt to share their email and establish a log-in to access additional content, according to a Conde Nast spokeswoman.

The magazine publisher also convinced Apple to let the 1 million existing subscribers of the print edition of the New Yorker download and read iPad versions of the magazine for no additional fee.

"We are confident we will have data we need to make this a strong business long-term," said Conde Nast spokeswoman Mistrella Murphy.

Conde Nast also pushed for pricing flexibility with Apple. In February Apple said publishers would not be allowed to sell a subscription via the App Store at a higher price than it does elsewhere. Conde Nast said it will offer print and digital bundles of some of its titles like Wired for the same price as it sells the iPad edition on its own.

Following the uproar over its February announcement, Apple has in recent weeks started reaching individual deals with major publishers, including Time Warner Inc's Time Inc and Hearst Corp. Hearst, which publishes Esquire and O: the Oprah magazine, will have more access to customer information from subscriptions sold through the App Store.

Time Inc's improved relationship with Apple has already inspired it to begin testing the limits of getting online readers accustomed to paying to read Fortune, a publication that hitherto has been available for free.

Fortune magazine, owned by Time, made a widely discussed feature story about Apple available only to customers of its print and iPad editions. The story was kept off Fortune.com.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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New Yorker Offers iPad Subscriptions

“Whether it’s in there,” he said, pointing to the magazine, “or on there,” pointing to the iPad, “is going to cost about a dollar under this plan. That’s what a song costs. A lot has gone into it. Imaginative effort, editorial footwork, fact-checking and copy editing, all at the highest level every week. All of that for the price of a song? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.”

Apple, which released the iPad last March, has been busy rounding up publishers to help make its tablet even more appealing to consumers. Last week, Hearst Magazines announced a deal for iPad subscriptions to some of its magazines that will begin in July and Time Inc. made an arrangement for subscribers to get some magazines free, but Condé Nast is the first major publisher to begin a subscription plan on the iPad for one of its magazines (previously readers had to download each issue individually).

And the iPad subscription offer is quite aggressive: $5.99 for one month (for four issues) and $59.99 for a full year. But even more surprising, a bundled version of print and digital subscriptions, is available for $6.99 a month, or $69.99 a year. (Current print subscribers can sign in to the iPad version at no additional charge.)

Subscriptions on the iPad to The New Yorker went on sale early Monday, and subscriptions for other Condé Nast magazines, including Vanity Fair, Glamour, Golf Digest, Allure, Wired, Self and GQ, will become available in the coming weeks. The Condé Nast-Apple deal was first reported in The New York Post last week.  

“We already have these applications in our store and the No. 1 bit of feedback that we have gotten from our customers, the one thing that everyone wants, is to be able to subscribe,” Mr. Cue said.

Condé Nast has traditionally gotten its magazines in the hands of consumers at a cheap price in the hopes of building up big rate bases, the number used to sell advertisers, and the deal with Apple is consistent with that advertising-first approach. Over time, the new tablet subscribers could be a boon to advertising now that the Audit Bureau of Circulations has ruled that digital subscribers can be counted toward the rate base. The bundled subscriptions could also help protect the legacy business by giving a boost to print subscriptions while selling many more digital ones — young people and international consumers are a particular target.

“In terms of the price, we are constantly examining what will work and decided that we wanted to make the initial offer as attractive as possible,” Mr. Sauerberg said.

It will come at a price. Although Condé Nast can sell digital subscriptions on its own Web sites, the vast majority of sales will take place in the Apple App Store, where nearly a third of the price will go to Apple (specific terms were not disclosed). In addition, the consumer data derived from app store sales will belong to Apple and shared as the company sees fit, although Mr. Cue said that “magazine publishers will know a lot more about subscribers on the iPad than they ever did about print subscribers.”

By teaming with Apple, Condé Nast and other publishers gain access to a database of 200 million credit card holders and a sales environment where billions of songs and millions of apps have already been sold. But the music industry lesson is one that is not lost on publishing. Apple may have “saved” the music industry, but it is a much smaller business with little control over its pricing.

“Of course, we have a very different perspective on that,” Mr. Cue said. “We didn’t shrink the music business, it was pretty shrunk by the time we came along. We have proven that people are willing to pay for content and that’s something people never believed would happen. Some people still don’t believe it.”

Condé Nast, which has often been cautious with the digital realm — for a long time many of its magazines didn’t have individual Web sites — has moved swiftly to be first to market with iPad subscriptions.

“If you are going to get thousands of readers that you didn’t have before, or maybe even hundreds of thousands of readers, you’d be foolish to complain about the work that went into coming up with something they found compelling on the iPad,” Mr. Remnick said. “It is a very big opportunity for a magazine like The New Yorker to find whole new audiences.”

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Condè Nast bringing The New Yorker and more to the iPad

The New Yorker is finally on its way to the iPad via subscription – and it’s not alone. Power publisher Condè Nast announced it will also introduce Wired, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Golf Digest, Allure, Self, and GQ subscriptions to the App Store by the end of the month.

In a blog post, The New Yorker explained that while its original iPad app was well-received, its customers wanted more. “They wanted to subscribe to the magazine on the iPad or to get access to their subscription if they had one already; until now, the only way to read the magazine on the iPad was to buy single issues, at single-issue prices. As of this morning, that is changing.”

Apple launched its iTunes-App Store subscription model in February alongside the debut of The Daily, and getting there was no small feat. Rumor had it that Apple could not reach an agreement with publishers over consumer data, and the 30-percent cut the company would keep from all in-app subscriptions was also being contested. The subscription model’s introduction didn’t go smoothly either, attracting an investigation courtesy of U.S. antitrust regulators on account of Apple’s charges and rule prohibiting app’s from promoting product outside of Apple’s own store. The Cupertino company has long been labeled anticompetitive, and its in-app subscription terms for publishers haven’t helped it deny these claims.

Despite any bad press, big name publishers are still jumping on board. The New Yorker will now be available for current print subscribers to receive the publication via iPad for free, and everyone else can now pay $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Prior to, each issue cost $4.99. Condè Nast is a major victory for Apple, and comes just after Hearst agreed to sell magazines subscriptions through iTunes last week. And according to All Things Digital, Apple might be willing to employ some flexibility when it comes to its subscription terms. Hearst suggested the company “[modified] at least some of its conditions” in order to come to an agreement over its content. It looks some concessions on Apple’s part were applied to the Condè Nast deal too, such as admitting the publisher to request additional consumer data and flexible pricing options.

While consumers are likely thrilled by the increase of available magazine comment and ease that comes with the subscription rates, we’re willing to bet other publishers who have agree to the iTunes subscription terms may start to seek this kind of accommodating treatment from Apple as well.

Here’s the press release announcing the new content in it’s entirety [via Engadget].

CONDÉ NAST TO OFFER MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR iPAD

The New Yorker Available Via Subscription on the App Store Starting Today,

Seven Others by End of May

New York, N.Y.-May 9, 2011- Condé Nast has begun offering subscriptions for iPad editions of its magazines today, it was announced by Robert A. Sauerberg, Jr., President of Condé Nast. Subscriptions are now available for The New Yorker, which will be followed by Vanity Fair, Glamour, Golf Digest, Allure, Wired, Self and GQ in the coming weeks.

Subscriptions for iPad editions of Condé Nast magazines will be available through In-App Purchase on the App Store. Current print subscribers will be able to access iPad editions immediately through the term of their subscriptions, and new print subscriptions sold on Condé Nast websites ?including newyorker.com? will include access to iPad editions.

“We’ve been working closely with Apple for some time to be the first to deliver what consumers clearly want: easy access to premium packaged digital content via subscription,” said Mr. Sauerberg. “The iPad has created an incredible new way for readers to experience our award-winning magazines. Over time, we’ll see subscriptions leading to greater and greater scale, helping to drive overall industry growth.”

“We are thrilled to have Condé Nast’s world-renowned magazines available on the iPad,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s Vice President of Internet Services. “Condé Nast is connecting with readers in an innovative way, and we think everyone is going to love being able to subscribe to iPad editions of their favorite Condé Nast magazines with just one click.”

Condé Nast will offer monthly and yearly subscriptions and will continue to offer single issues, all via In-App Purchase on the App Store. Some additional pricing details:

· Subscriptions to The New Yorker’s weekly iPad editions are available through In-App Purchase on the App Store and include password access to the web-based edition for $5.99/month (4 issues) or $59.99/year. Print and digital bundled subscriptions available at newyorker.com include print, iPad and web-based editions for $6.99/month (4 issues) or $69.99/year.

· Subscription offerings available through In-App Purchase on the App Store for Wired, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Golf Digest, Allure, Self and GQ will be $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year.

Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, operates in 25 countries and is home to some of the world’s most celebrated media brands. In the United States, Condé Nast publishes 18 consumer magazines, four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 30 apps for mobile and tablet devices, all of which define excellence in their categories. Condé Nast has won more National Magazine Awards over the past ten years than all of its competitors combined.

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