Time Inc. wants to start a joint venture with a number of US magazine publishers to deliver their magazine titles to electronic devices such as eBook readers and tablets. Whether this will filter down to smartphones remains to be seen, but this could have huge ramifications for the whole publishing industry if it turns out to be a success. The content will be paid for as well which may be the initial stumbling block considering how we all tend to view online and electronic media as worthy of less money than paper magazines and newspapers. More at msnbc.
“Time Inc. is gathering U.S. magazine publishers to start a jointly run digital newsstand next year that would deliver their titles to mobile devices like increasingly popular electronic book readers.
Time Warner is leading the effort, and has approached other big U.S. magazine publishers including Conde Nast and Hearst, a source with knowledge of the joint venture but no authorization to speak about it told Reuters.
Users of the service would get a digital newsstand where they could buy subscriptions, potentially by the month or year or in other forms, the source said.”
I hope they do it as well and offer as good discounts as Zinio
http://www.zinio.com/
It makes sense, and might save some trees in the progress. I find magazines a hard to swallow when there so much content online.
I cant see how they will fit in smartphones. even the iPhone would struggle to show a magazine full size and this could be great for ebook readers which have little else to offer.