“Because that’s what the market will bear — at least for now,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes for Fortune.
“If you buy the digital editions of Popular Science or TIME Magazine on the iPad, they cost $4.99 each — same as on the newsstand,” Elmer-DeWitt writes. “However, one-year subscriptions to Popular Science (the paper magazine) are currently selling for $12 — or $1 an issue. And TIME subscriptions can be had for $20 — around 35¢ an issue.”
“The attendees at the WeMedia conference had widely divergent opinions about the approach publishers are taking,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “‘I like the brazenness of TIME’s $4.99 an issue,’ said Roger Black, a veteran magazine designer whose portfolio includes the logos for both TIME and Newsweek. ‘I think the TIME Magazine app is the most sinful piece of shit ever,’ said Buzzmachine’s Jeff Jarvis, a former Time Inc. editor and author of What Would Google Do? ‘The ego of it was unabashedly awful.'”
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “As for that $4.99 per-issue magazine price, it will come down in a month or so when Apple allows magazines to set up subscriptions on the iTunes store, says Popular Science’s Jannot. But it won’t come down much. He’s planning to charge $29.99 for 12 iPad issues and $19.99 for six.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you think the prices are too high, capitalism provides a simple remedy for this: Do not buy the the magazines. Visit them for free on your iPad’s Safari browser until the publishers lower their prices. If enough people think the prices are too high and don’t buy, then prices will come down. If iPad magazine prices do not decrease, then you know that you are in the minority.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe J.” for the heads up.]
I paid for the first Time and Popular Science just to have them to show people what an iPad is capable of. I would consider $29.99/yr fair and would buy magazine subscriptions for that price. That is worth it to have the magazine with me at all times, and not have to carry more objects (magazines) with me.
Much like books, I find that I read more of the issues of Time and Popular Science I bought when they were on my iPad. If it’s there, and I have 15 free minutes, then I’ll read it. As it stands now, I subscribed to Time (my sub is up in July) and I barely read the dead tree version, because it’s not with me when I have the time to read. If it’s sitting on my coffee table in my Living Room while I’m sitting in a Lobby waiting for a customer, then it doesn’t get read. So even though the dead tree subscription is only $20/yr, it’s pretty much worthless to me because I’m not reading it. I’d pay (a little) more to have it on my iPad so that I do read it, and stay informed.
Anyone seen pixel mags pricing. Really reasonable first mag is free on purchase of app then it’s like £1.79 for one mag that is £3.99 in paper
All of you non-reading fucks bitching about the price of magazines make about as much sense as vegans bitching about the price of a good steak.
Get over yourselves.
@G4Dualie <—wow you got up on the wrong side of the bed huh?
I don’t think the price of an electronic issue should be the same if not less than the paper version. If it is, I would like to hear why.
Reading the website or subscribing through Zinio are definitely viable options, but having truly interactive versions of magazines is great. But the price is definitely NOT right! Hardcopy mags are available for very low prices from the publishers as well as through maghound.com, and when you consider that the electronic version doesn’t have printing, paper, shipping, postage and other costs, it seems totally unreasonable to charge $5/issue. Though I doubt a subscription will get down to $0.20/issue, $0.99/issue or $10/year per subscription certainly makes more sense. There will clearly be many more subscribers at this price than at $5. I think the mag publishers are just being incredibly greedy (and stupid) with their current price point.
I think there is a huge disconnect between what the users/customers want and what the publishers think they want. For example, IMO, most people just want the print in digital form at a similar price point. Others want more content and media, a more interactive experience.
The publishers went straight to the interactive model and jacked up the price. Wrong. I’m one of those who just want the print in digital form. Until I at least get that, the current model doesn’t work for me and I won’t purchase.
They can choke on it.
Time magazine is trying to see how long it can get away with it. Like MDN said, just don’t pay it if you do not feel it is worth it. That’s all
@HMCIV:
If you don’t buy the magazines, the prices won’t go up, they’ll go down because the publisher will put them on sale to sell more issues. If they don’t sell enough issues, they won’t be able to charge as much for advertising. That’s why paper magazine subscriptions can be had so cheaply – it increases subscription rates sufficiently to drive up advertising prices, which is where the money is in publishing.
@ Forrest, Forrest Gump:
Same goes in the U.S., only for the most part we don’t get to use our own oil, or we let foreign companies (BP) rush to drill it and create environmental disasters.
I’ll pay $0.99 for almost anything, no matter how useless.
For $4.99 I expect something decent like a game that works, an album with at least 4 good tunes on it, a swimsuit edition magazine, a commemorative edition magazine of a significant event or a month’s subscription to a newspaper of relevance.
I will not subscribe to a Magazine at $4.99 an e-copy when I can get the hard copy by subscription for less than $1.00.
When you vote with you’re wallet, sellers listen up big time.
jailbreak, download pirated copies, fcuk em
Bought the 1st PopSci for kicks. With all they put into it, it was worth the price…ONCE.
Might buy Wired once at that price.
Overall, I did not spend $500 on a paper replacement only to not be given the discount one should receive having lowered the cost of distribuition to almost nill.
$10-$13 seems fair for a book. But, $5 for one issue of a magazine is not sustainable.
greed kills.
The market’s not “bearing” $4.99, Elmer. The only people buying these frauds are people duped into thinking they’re getting more than one issue.
As an alternative, I find Zinio very usable. They may just be pdf versions of the print editions, but that’s all the functionality that these $4.99 apps have now anyway. You can find subscription-competitive pricing for periodicals like Macworld and several dozen others.
It’s just the novelty aspect of it, during the first month of iPad. I’m sure enough customers are trying one for $4.99, just to see what an interactive e-magazine is like. But most will not be paying $4.99 every month, so the subscription per-issue rate will be much lower. Once there is sufficient e-competition for your eye-balls, the price should go below the subscription rate for paper-based issues.
Everyone is still in the last century, and perhaps the one before it. Why are we still thinking in terms of “Issues” or subscriptions? The new world is before us and there will be a new paradigm. As articles are finished edited and approved, they can be posted to an “on-going” periodical on a subscription basis. Or you could even just subscribe to a single columnist. (I happen to like Peter Egan from the various petrol-head magazines). All this fuss over a price for an “Issue” is missing the point. There are advantages in a digital magazine. Perhaps it is an offshoot of the “Album vs. Song” argument.
Supposedly New Yorkers led the country in rudeness and
non-civility. But judging from Left Coast Dude’s posted
comments, that dubious honor has passed on.