The release of the new, upgraded iPhone last week might mean the dawn of a new digital content distribution channel. The first publisher to get its feet wet with the upgraded phone? Men’s Health magazine, which is selling an app that offers workout regimens and exercises to try. But it’s not just a novelty app—where you download it, use it, then forget about it. The new iPhone’s apps allow for continuous upgrades and new features to be added (in the Men’s Health case, new workouts) for additional fees, allowing publishers an outlet for a constant stream of content and a constant stream of revenue. The Men’s Health app, reports AdAge, is selling for $1.99, and additional sets of workouts will go for 99 cents.
Industry buzz app, apps, content, iPhone, revenue
With advertising revenues down, publishers are increasingly investigating non-advertising ways to bring in additional revenue, such as raising subscription and newsstand pricing and cutting rate bases, like New York just did this week. Another small light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of the iPhone, as iPhone applications created by – and touted by – magazine brands are gaining in popularity and bringing publishers just a smidgen more much-needed cash flow. By bringing the right amount of exclusive content to readers, and making it interactive and functional enough so that people will want to pay for it, magazine publishers might be on the right track with their iPhone apps. MediaWeek reported this week that Hachette Filipacchi Media, the parent of brands such as Elle and Car & Drive, are launching iPhone apps later this year that will focus on shopping and cars. Also, Meredith Corp., which has lifestyle titles like Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle, plans to launch apps focused on food, parenting and fitness. Apps run the gamut of prices, from free to ad-supported, to $5 or $10 a pop, to bundle subscription-based “premium” features that are added onto free apps. We applaud publishers not stemming the flow of great content, but instead finding new outlets for it.
Industry buzz applications, apps, content, Hachette Filipacchi, iPhone, Meredith, revenue
In the last few weeks, a lot questions have been raised about Amazon’s new big-screen Kindle, the DX. Will it really change the magazine industry, as we know it? Will people really pay $489 for an e-reader with no color? How will it compare to the adorable but not-a-major-brand Plastic Logic? Will Amazon really be so bold as to swipe a cool 70% from Kindle’d bloggers’ revenue? We’re watching the headlines closely.
Today’s news? PaidContent.org reported that analysts are estimating Amazon’s Kindle will rake “$300 million in revenue this year and $70 million in profit, growing to $1.6 billion in revenue and at least $400 million in profit by 2012.” Not sure how we feel about Amazon raking in such major dough on the backs of bloggers and magazine publishers everywhere. What do you think?
Industry buzz Amazon, bloggers, Kindle, Plastic Logic, revenue
There’s little doubt that times are tough in magazine publishing right now. With ad revenues sinking lower and lower, what’s going to save the freebie magazines that have solely relied on that cash flow? According to an article in this week’s Newsweek, the answer might no longer be found in the price of ad space, but it perhaps it can be found in the price of the actual magazine. It seems the days of free magazines—or even $10 subscriptions—might be numbered. Increasingly, magazines are upping their newsstand and subscription prices to help replace what’s gone missing in advertising revenue. According to Mr. Magazine, the average price of a magazine on the newsstand is now $8.10, compared with $5.37 in 2000.
Industry buzz magazines, newsstand, Newsweek, price, revenue, subscription
Deciding whether to implement subscriptions or some kind of a payment system for your online content is a tough call. Here’s a look at a company that embraced the concept early and reaped the benefits of their decision: Access Intelligence’s Chemical Business Media switched its Chemical Week and Chemical Engineering Magazine Web sites to a paid-content model in 2007, according to Jason Fell at FOLIO Magazine. Fell reports that since the switch, the group has generated 30,000 new customers, helping to put a stop to a 30-year slide in revenue. Parts of ChemWeek.com are free for visitors, but most of the users convert to paid subscriptions to access more in-depth content. Read Jason Fell’s article on the company’s switch here.
Industry buzz content, micropayments, online, paid-content, payments, revenue, subscriptions
