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As the year is coming to close, many companies step back and take stock of the decisions they have made over the last 12 months and determine if they are heading in the right direction. For Hearst Magazines, finally giving in to Apple’s steadfast App Store rules has proved a wise–and lucrative–choice.
Talking to Reuters this week, Hearst Magazine President David Carey said that he expects to reach a million digital subscribers by the end of 2012, due in large part to the success of Apple’s iPad and the ease of the new-to-iOS 5 Newsstand, which makes subscribing to your favorite magazines on your iPad simple and intuitive.
Hearst currently has about 400,000 digital subscribers across all its devices, including the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. Hearst publishes 19 of its titles digitally, including Popular Mechanics, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire.
Hearst was one of the companies that initially resisted selling its titles on the iPad, insisting Apple’s revenue cut was too big. Said Carey of the meetings in early 2011, “there was so much drama with Apple negotiations. (You would) expect someone to sell the movie rights from all that debate last spring.”
Clearly magazines (and the print industry in general) have been under extreme pressure over the last couple years as tablet computing and smartphone usage has dominated media consumption. Finding partners like Apple to continue selling their content at a reasonable profit should be high on any print company’s list.
“It’s a pretty efficient distribution for us to be honest,” said Carey.
What are your favorite magazines on your iPad? Let me know in the comments!
