We can never resist a magazine or two when standing in the checkout line at Target.
Now the retail chain is hoping to spawn similar magazine purchases online through a new digital magazine newsstand it has created in partnership with digital content provider Zinio. Target.com shoppers can order digital subscriptions, single copies, and archived copies of hundreds of magazines on the new co-branded, private-label newsstand site target.zinio.com. The digital copies can be read on the computer, or on e-readers or mobile phones.
But Target isn’t the only one venturing into digital newsstand technology. Time Inc. is said to be in talks with other publishers, such as Conde Nast and Hearst, on the creation of a digital newsstand that could become the “Hulu for glossies,” where magazine-like publications are delivered via e-readers. Time Inc.’s John Squires made the announcement at the Oct. 14 Magazine Innovation Summit.
More details about the new venture, including a possible third-party that would act as the storefront, should be announced next month, with a launch date of 2010.
