See cover, click here, get issue: fledgling site delivers magazines on demand

A new venture in the U.S. called CoverAwards.com meets and seems to overcome one of the recurrent complaints about magazine fulfillment: you order a sub and get your first magazine six weeks later. According to a column in Ad Age by Nat Ives, the new site news site -- obsessed with the latest magazine covers -- has started linking to a magazine retailer that delivers current issues as quickly as two hours if you're in Manhattan.

A typical post today on the news site...shows the new Sports Illustrated cover. "With five gold medals and counting, it's easy to say that Michael Phelps is stealing the show," the post says. "And Sport Illustrated debuts its latest cover featuring Phelps. Click here to buy it now!" The "click here" link brings you to Universal News on Demand, a site built by Universal News -- a bricks-and-mortar magazine retailer that carries some 6,000 titles.

"Universal News launched Universal News on Demand in the beginning of 2007 to basically increase the efficiency and the sell-through of the products that we already had in our stores," said Justine Kawas, VP-communications. "We didn't want to turn to publishers and say we're okay with selling just 45% of your product -- which is actually higher than the industry average."

As Ives notes, it's hard to believe that this will become a mainstream news channel. But anything that improves sell-through and reader engagement has to be a good thing.