Next Issue newsstand hits the iPad

Next Issue Media’s newsstand app is finally launching on the iPad, with the same unlimited subscription model the company currently offers through select Android devices.

The iPad app comes more than a year after Next Issue launched its newsstand for the Android-based Samsung Galaxy. “We took the time we needed to get it right for the iPad,” Morgan Guenther, CEO of Next Issue Media, said in a phone interview.

Next Issue’s magazine portfolio is up to 39 titles, with the recent addition of Bon Appétit, Brides, Golf Digest, GQ, Self, Vogue and Wired. Those and the other titles in the newsstand are all from Next Issue’s founding publishers: Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc.

Unlike many other newsstand apps, which offer single-user or subscription pricing for individual titles, Next Issue offers an all-you-can-eat pricing plan that lets users read multiple magazines for a single monthly fee ($9.99 or $14.99). That’s a potentially disruptive approach as publishers seek digital alternatives to the traditional print subscription model. 

Ready for the mass market?

Guenther said the Android-based version of the newsstand has about 10,000 active users across its single-copy, subscription and monthly access plans.

“We intentionally launched on a very small subset of Android devices, with a focus on getting people used to the experience,” he said. “Now we’re moving from early adopters toward the mass market. The iPad is an absolutely fantastic media consumption device.”

Early engagement metrics from the Android newsstand are positive, Guenther said. The average user has approximately 10 titles in his or her library and spends about 100 minutes per week with the digital magazines.

When Next Issue launched in 2011, the company said it planned to offer titles from outside its founding publishers. But Guenther said they’re not quite ready to begin recruiting new publishers. “We still have a lot to do with the publishers we have now,” he said.

That work includes doubling the size of the catalog by this fall and more aggressively marketing the newsstand, now that it’s available on the iPad. Also in the works: a Windows 8 version. The company will look to bring on additional publishers beginning early next year, along with international distribution, Guenther said.