After more than two years of preparation, a consortium of magazine publishers will release the full version of its digital newsstand, which gives readers the chance to purchase magazines for a monthly flat rate.
Next Issue Media, a group of publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Time Inc. and News Corporation, will announce the latest version of its tablet application, which will include 32 magazines like The New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, Better Homes and Gardens, Elle, Esquire, Wired, Fortune, People, Real Simple and Sports Illustrated.
The group has good reason to want to put its digital editions on tablets and make them available to readers. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, digital circulation of magazines — on tablets, paid Web sites and mobile phones — has doubled in the past year. A total of 223 magazines reported more than 3.1 million digital copies of their publications in the second half of 2011, compared with 195 magazines that reported 1.5 million copies in 2010.
Read more at the NY Times
