Sam Oliver
The publisher has launched its new Bloomberg BusinessWeek app with a $2.99 monthly subscription, or free for existing subscribers of the print version, according to PaidContent.
The free app includes an initial free edition of the magazine to review, including a video on how the cover art was designed and audio of Tom Keene’s Econochat and a Charlie Rose interview. New weekly editions will be published each Thursday evening.
Apple first released its in app subscription plans for iPad in February, resulting in a backlash of complaint from a variety of publishers. It was also widely reported that Google would take away Apple's subscription business with its cheaper, web-centric One Pass program.
While many reports suggested that publishers were refusing to pay Apple the same 30 percent cut it charges for other App Store transactions, the main sticking point for most publishers was the opt-in model Apple chose for subscribers, which only let publishers get the identity of subscribers if the subscriber elected to share their personal data.
Neither point was issue for Bloomberg mobile head Oke Okaro who stated in an interview "we are very pleased with Apple’s terms," while noting that he expects subscribers will willingly volunteer the personal information that publishers value.
The new BusinessWeek app is unique in a number of respects. Rather than being a giant graphic output like some previous attempts at iPad publications, the new app adds social links, virtual clippings for sharing, interactive media and graphics while remaining relatively slim at just 30MB per issue (less than a tenth the size of Wired).
The $2.99 per month pricing is also simple and affordable, compared to the oddly confusing and relatively expensive packages recently released by New York Times, which has separate tiers for iPhone and iPad use and range from $15 to $35 per month for its various digital plans.
Okaro said Bloomberg had been working to refresh its newly acquired BusinessWeek in print before building its iPad edition, but had no announcements to make about digital delivery on other non-iOS platforms. "The iPad is the most important place to be right now, and that’s where we’re focused,†he said.
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William Gallagher
21 Comments
Am I missing something? Apple announced all this in app subscription and purchase nonsense in February, but applications like NYTimes and Zinio continue to sell their subscriptions only through a link-out to safari. Is there a transition period that supposed to end at some point?
Am I missing something? Apple announced all this in app subscription and purchase nonsense in February, but applications like NYTimes and Zinio continue to sell their subscriptions only through a link-out to safari. Is there a transition period that supposed to end at some point?
Yes, in June, at least that is was Apple had announced back then (plus new apps would have to follow the new rules or newly interpreted rules from the start).
I wish more publishers would do what The New Yorker, Triathlete Magazine, and a few others are doing -- a subscription-based, Safair-for-iPad-optimized version of the magazine. You give up some interactivity and UI, but it's basically what I want, which a flip-able PDF-like version of the magazine.
If the choice is between having an app that will only allow for purchase of $5 single issues and a subscription-based version that looks really good on iPad Safari, I'll go with the latter.
Bloomberg Businessweek is now available on the App Store for the iPad. The free application comes with one free issue of the magazine, and a four-issue digital subscription is just $2.99.
In addition, subscribers to the print edition of the magazine get each week's issue free after validating their print subscription.
So, does Bloomberg has to offer that one can subscribe to the print edition (+iPad version) via Apple's subscription service? Since you can order the print + iPad edition via their website, shouldn't Bloomberg have to match that offer via Apple's subscription service?
Or is it rather that Apple has come to its senses and is now allowing the bundled sale of print and iPad editions without demanding a cut?
I would guess it is the latter. As a lot of people have said, Apple is making things up as they go along. Which means they occasionally get things wrong but then correct it later. But it also means that your terms and conditions can change at any moment since Apple does not feel bound by what they said (or did) yesterday.
Am I missing something? Apple announced all this in app subscription and purchase nonsense in February, but applications like NYTimes and Zinio continue to sell their subscriptions only through a link-out to safari. Is there a transition period that supposed to end at some point?
June 30th is supposedly the time everyone will have to comply with the rule.