Magzter magazine newsstand service cuts all-you-can-read fee by 20%

One of the players in the "all you can read" digital newsstand world is Magzter which, since January 2015 has made access to downloads of more than 3,000 magazine titles from 212 countries available for a single, monthly fee of $9.99. 

Now, the New York-based service is cutting its monthly fee for Magzter Gold by 20% to $7.99 a month. (The company continues to offer Magzter Gold Lite which allows reading of any five magazines for a monthly price of $4.99.) 

(It may be coincidental -- or not -- that the price cut is happening just as Next Issue Media and Next Issue Canada have rebranded as Texture.)

In addition to the all-you-can-read option, Magzter offers readers a portal to subscribe to individual magazines. It offers publishers a revenue share model and apps for most mobile platforms, both for iPad/IPhone and for Android. However its magazines are all PDF-based, so limited in their interactivity. It does offer a family sharing plan whereby subscribers can share the sub for free with any four designated family members. 

[H/T Talking New Media]

What's a reader worth a year? That's a metric worth tracking

The average revenue per user (ARPU) is a metric that more and more publishers are, or should be, using to analyze their  plans for online publishing and to determine how much money they need to make a profit from readership, according to a post in paidContent.  Matt Shanahan of Scout Analytics says his clients are aiming at a target figure of $10 a year. Revenue becomes as important (or more important) as audience.

However, Shanahan freely admits that ARPU can vary wildly: for example, the comparison of People magazine making $409 revenue/visitor/year in 2009 and Demand Media getting only $1.60.

Tide on iPad magazine subs seems to be running to higher pricing than print

Consumers are likely to be surprised, and probably disappointed, by the pricing of magazines appearing on iPads starting this month. The assumption -- perhaps encouraged by free web posting and many digital "flip" editions that are priced less than their print counterparts -- is that iPad editions will cost less. The uncertainty extends to magazine managements who are trying to come up with a coherent pricing strategy.

Nat Ives in Ad Age  reports that iPad subscriptions to Popular Science, Popular Photography and Sound & Vision will cost twice as much as they do in print. Where they could buy a year of Popular Science for $12 (about 83 cents an issue) ordered through the magazine's website (or $10 on Amazon), an iPad edition will cost $29.95, or about $250 an issue.

Bonnier's subscriptions and pricing strategy will have company fairly shortly. Time Inc. CEO Anne Moore said last week that Time magazine iPad subscriptions are "coming soon." And she didn't sound any more interested in discount pricing than Bonnier. "It's becoming increasingly clear customers will pay for trusted, quality content," she said in remarks at a Time Warner investors day.

One commenter on Ive's story said: 

Price is just one part of the equation. The other part is utility. Combine the two and you have value. The reason publishers will be able to explore a more expanded range of pricing is that this new medium gives them an expanded range of content and interactivity, and therefore more utility that they can provide.

Another said:

Consumers do not and will not understand why these magazines should cost more when they do not have to be physically printed and distributed. The first magazines to defect from the premium pricing strategy will learn this quickly. The ensuing rush to the bottom (pricing-wise) could be avoided by pricing fairly now.

"One price shopping" regardless of platform likely says The New Yorker editor

While magazines currently are in botherations about how to price digital editions to new customers or their existing customers, a reasonable bellwether of where we might be going is The New Yorker. According to a story by Nat Ives in Ad Age, The New Yorker is moving towards a model where one fee covers all platforms, rather than charging one price for a print edition, another for a digital app or still another for new devices like the iPad. 

Magazine publishers have been excited to sell iPad editions, seeing it as a promising way to finally wring circulation revenue from digital media -- revenue the web has not delivered for most titles. But subscribers would appreciate a way to access brands' content wherever it appears without feeling nickel and dimed. And the current digital pricing model in the magazine business punishes existing subscribers.

The New Yorker, for example, sells new print subscriptions for $39.95 a year, sells a Kindle edition for $2.99 a week, and, if the iPad edition expected this year follows current industry practice, will sell the iPad app for something close to the print cover price, $5.99 a week at The New Yorker. The idea likely to reach fruition "fairly soon," Mr. Remnick said, will offer the print edition for one fee and the magazine plus everything else for another fee.

Big U.S. magazine cover prices on the rise

In a move that some  say is about time, magazine cover prices have been and are going up. According to a story in Mediaweek,

Condé Nast is raising cover prices on The New Yorker, Golf Digest and Teen Vogue in 2010, having already done so at Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler and Lucky this fall. 
Hearst is lifting the cover price of Good Housekeeping, Esquire and Veranda and is considering the same for Country Living and other titles. Wenner Media quietly raised prices on Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone in the fall. And Meredith is eyeing newsstand price increases at flagship Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle and Traditional Home, while Rodale is looking at doing the same at its health/fitness titles.

Sometimes publishers are effectively increasing prices by cutting frequency in subscriptions, the story said -- for instance, Fortune holding the line nominally, but providing 18 copies instead of 25. 

John Harrington, who publishes the respected industry newsletter The New Single Copy, is quoted saying that, while in the past, single-copy buyers have accepted increases "The sharp downturn has changed the conventional wisdom."

Have readers of this blog noted any price increases in Canadian titles?

Utne Reader hikes sub cost 50%: "pay for the journalism you value"

After 25 years in business, Utne Reader is making the bold move of increasing its prices dramatically. A one-year subscription goes up 50% to $29.95; the single copy price goes up 40% to $6.99.

"We're asking those who value quality journalism to support it," said Utne Reader's publisher and editorial director Bryan Welch [reported in Audience Development] in a statement, tapping the current backlash against free content. "We need to get out of the mindset that news and information should be free in every medium—especially among the independent media where the advertising dollar can be hard to come by."

The magazine, which is a bimonthly digest of original and reprinted content from independent media, is increasing its trim size to a standard 8.5 inches by 10 inches and will have a heavier cover and body stock.

The anniversary issue, September-October, is on newsstands today(August 25).

Split run cover pricing being used to evade dollar parity for magazines

Ever since the loonie soared to parity and beyond, compared with the U.S. greenback, Canadian purchasers have been demanding at least dollar parity, and quite rightly.

At first, retailers wound up eating the difference to keep customers sweet. Then, it seemed, publishers were grudgingly moving to get rid of the old "5.99 CAN, $4.99 US" cover prices. This would mean Canadian and U.S. purchasers of U.S. books and magazines would be paying roughly the same price.

But a friend of the blog tells us that at least one U.S. publishing company is now running two covers. The Canadian cover says "$5.99"; the American cover reads "$4.99" and Canadians continue to pay more, albeit secretly.